


Better luck this time

by lw531



Series: MJ's Peter [1]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cannon Divergent, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mysterio never gets EDITH, Mysterio's a punk, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Has a Crush, Peter Parker is a Mess, SPOILERS AHEAD, Slow Burn, almost the opposite of Peter whump, guy in the chair - Freeform, hand holding, if that's a thing, near death experiences are emotionally exhausting, spider-man far from home, this is almost anti-peter wump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2020-12-20 18:43:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21061391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lw531/pseuds/lw531
Summary: What would happen if Peter Parker's Plan worked? (Alternate Universe)She woke up to the feel of a hand sweeping her hair. Blinking her eyes open, she finds Peter darting his hand away and saying,”Sorry,” as the pillow under head moved.He was the pillow under her head. She had grabbed his arm for leverage, so I wasn’t just dreaming that, was I? She thought to herself.She straightened herself out and muttered, “Sorry, I didn’t mean--“It’s okay,” he offers smiling, “I don’t mind. It seemed like you were having--“A weird dream,” she interjects pursing her lips together, “I was by myself when I blipped and sometimes, when I sleep…”“You grab onto someone or something?" he asks searching her eyes.*Characters belong to the MCU**Fic inspired by Spider-Man FFH





	1. Pieces coming together

**Author's Note:**

> After three months of reading Spideychelle fics, I decided to write my own. I alternate between Peter/MJ POV's. <3 <3

LEAVING NEW YORK

Michelle POV

Peter’s late again. Everyone’s on the plane, she’s sitting next to Betty. She can spot Ned standing in the aisle. “I know Peter’s on his way, Sir,” he says as Mr. Harrington approaches him.

“Ned,” Mr. Harringon begins, “we’ll have to respect whatever the airline says--

“Penis Parker, late again?” Flash asks peeking in from his first-class seat on the opposite side of the plane.

“No,” Peter answers adjusting his backpack and smiling.

“Good to see you, Peter,” Mr. Harrington says.

Peter nods and catches her watching him. He smiles at her, and she rolls her eyes back to her book Fleming’s  _ How to Talk less Stupid about Race _ . She tells herself -  _ Keep it cool _ ,  _ MJ, don’t get caught up in his twinkling eyes. _

He’s seated two rows behind the front of economy, far enough to not engage.  _ Bummer,  _ she thinks to herself from her middle aisle middle row seat,  _ he’s too far to mess with.  _

“Do you want a gummy bear?” Betty offers her as she pulls the medium sized bag of candy out of her pocket. 

“No,” she says keeping her eyes on her book, “thanks.”

Betty starts rambling about what she’s most looking forward to about the trip, despite the fact that MJ remains glued to Fleming’s examples of interventions. The hashtag #citeblackwomen has inspired a new list of books for MJ to read, increasing her visits to CUNY’s library. Fleming, though dated at 2018, was one of many Black women scholars she pulled from their recommendations. She brought two more--Barbara Smith and Audre Lorde--with her. 

She catches Betty closing her tray table before the flight attendant says anything, which lifts her eyes from her book. She spots Peter in the aisle, “Thanks for switching, Betty,” he says smiling.

“I did want to be nearer the window,” she says, “so thank you. I love watching the sky change as we fly,” she concludes pulling her bag from under the seat in front of her and leaving her aisle seat. MJ adjusts herself as he peels off his bookbag. From the corner of her eye, she watches him as he pulls out his smartphone, and a headphone splitter.

Deep breaths, MJ, deep...breaths.  _ I didn’t want him this close.  _

“Hey,” Peter offers as he plugs in the headphones into the headphone splitter.

“Ssup, Parker,” she says looking up from her book. She offers a quick smile before she returns to reading. 

Peter POV

A flight attendant begins providing directions on putting tray tables and providing directions on how to sit on the plane. All he hears, though, or feels, is the increase in MJ’s heart rate. It hasn’t calmed down since he sat next to her and he hopes his cheeks aren’t as warm as he fears they are. Luckily, Betty wanted to be closer to the window, which made the switch easy.

He’s so grateful Ned supported his efforts to sit next to MJ. Between the line of questioning the day she was appointed decathlon captain to her sketches of him whenever he landed in detention, her cynicism had grown on him.

As the plane starts to ascend, their hands touch as they both reach out to the armrest. Their eyes meet as their pinkies brush. Peter wonders if his eyes were as wide as MJ’s and he turns to look forward as he brings his hand to his leg. “You can grab it,” he rambles, “if you want. Sorry.”

She smiles at him, “It’s okay,” adding, “just been a while since I flew.”

“Me too,” he says, though he wonders if he’s lying because it’s been since before the blip, which wasn’t that long ago for him. “Kind of,” he says more to himself.

“Before the blip?” she asks.

He nods.

“Way before that for me,” she says, “so with or without the blip, it’s been a long time for me…”

“I was...yeah, me, too,” he says correcting himself. The last time he flew was in a spaceship with Iron Man and others. He couldn’t think about that and not cry. And he didn’t want to cry sitting right next to MJ who smelled like lavender and honey, and oh wow, she was pretty up close, he thought to himself.  _ Don’t stare. Don’t stare. Don’t. Stare _ , he keeps telling himself, but then he catches her looking at him, turning bright pink, heart beating fast. Was she nervous too? “I’m listening to some of the podcasts you recommended,” he says, “you can use my splitter if you want to take a listen”

She nonverbally agrees, pulling her headphones out of her jacket and inserting them into the empty jack. Within minutes she’s laughing at the political satire humor, relaxed that they’re friends enough to share something like this. 

WAKING UP FROM DREAMING

Michelle

She wakes up to the feel of a hand sweeping her hair. Blinking her eyes open, she finds Peter darting his hand away and saying,” Sorry,” as the pillow under her head moves.

He was the pillow under her head. She had grabbed his arm for leverage,  _ so I wasn’t just dreaming that, was I? _ She thinks to herself.

She straightens herself out and muttered, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”

“It’s okay,” he offers smiling, “I don’t mind. It seemed like you were having--

“A weird dream,” she interjects pursing her lips together, “I was by myself when I blipped and sometimes when I sleep…”

“You grab onto someone or something?” He asks though it sounds more like a confession. 

She nods.

“Me, too,” Peter says lifting a corner of his lip.

“I thought this trip was supposed to help us forget,” MJ jokes.

“Yeah,” he breathes, “I’m looking forward to starting over--

“Me, too,” she interjects and then continues, “I wish they talked to us about it more, like, what it was like to return and realize we lost so much.”

“I’m glad May blipped too,” Peter admits, “I wouldn’t have wanted her to lose me so soon after…”

“I was the only one,” MJ admits, “so it was weird for me, coming back, but at least we have friends to talk to about it--we should talk more about it,” she continues and then he has that face, that concerned face he has when he’s deeply invested in what someone else is saying and his eyes are telling you he’s more committed to the moment than anything else, but it’s different than the exchanges he has about physics or legos or  _ Star Wars  _ and MJ has to shift gears because, well, it’s a lot of attention and she has no idea what it means. So she talks about the easy stuff and shifts the conversation topic, “like thinking about the animals that came back from endangerment in the time we were gone and the uncertainty of the economy, like all those elected officials who came back and the political unrest that resulted from it--I wonder…” she catches herself mid ramble,

“You wonder?” He asks.

She shakes her head, “I’m just thinking out loud, I mean, I should--

“I can hear you talk about anything,” he interrupts, going beat red, his eyes widening.

_ Why is he going beat red, _ she asks herself. Then she realizes their faces were inches apart, and not just because they’re sitting next to each other.  _ How’d our faces get so close? _ She can see a small scar on the corner of his right eye. _ Don’t stare, _ she tells herself,  _ don’t you dare stare. _ She looks up and finds his eyes, waiting.

“Oh,” she says taking in a deep breath and leaning into her chair to bring more space between them, “I know that there’s another podcast I recommended that has an episode about it--

“Which one?” He asks bringing out his phone and pulling up the podcast app, “can you show me?”

She blinks, smiles, and nods. Is he being friendly or is he, like her, looking for reasons to be closer to her?

She picks the podcast episode from dozens he’s appeared to have downloaded from the podcast.  _ He downloaded every episode? What a loser--adorable, sweet--dork, did he prepare for this?  _

He presses pause as soon as she starts speaking.

“I’m a talker during political commentary,” she admits.

“Keep going,” he offers, “I was so focused on the hero-worshipping of the Avengers, I’m really bad at paying attention to everything else.”

“Well,” she begins, breaking down her perceptions of the blip-displaced and the upended government infrastructure and as much as she is speaking on the potential for criminal instability, his nodding and attentive face encourage her to keep talking until she realizes she wants to keep watching the documentary. She hits play and they settle into sharing the warmth of thin armrest and small screen, pausing every time she has a perspective to add.

As much as she is dedicated to sharing her insight in soft whispers when someone behind them clears their throat, she finds herself working hard to not be distracted by the way he looks at her. Not just the face of concentration she’s observed when he’s listening to Ned or his teachers. She knows those concentration faces. This one is different.

Peter

He wants to keep listening to her speak. Even as the podcast moves on to the next episode, he wonders if there’s enough of them to spark more of her political monologues. She’s so smart. Smart and messy and invested like he and Ned obsess into  _ Star Wars _ , like he was in the experiments to develop webs and he wants to know more of the smart, passionate MJ in the as close to alone time they’ll have before they land. Before he has to share her with everyone else.

He wants so much more of MJ but he has to use the bathroom. “Let me know what else you wanna hear,” he asks, “and we can start once I get back.”

She nods, eyebrows furrowed, saying, “Sure.”

He walks down to the back of the plane to the restroom. Once he’s taken care of his business, he uses water to smooth out his hair and check his teeth. He opens the door to find MJ laughing with Brad, “no, really, you go ahead, I’ll just wait for Peter,” he catches her saying.

Peter closes the door again and makes sure the bathroom was clean, watching his hands and smoothing his hair out again before getting out. He opens the door again to find MJ tucking her hair behind her ear.

He walks back to his seat and get into it even though he knew he’d have to get out as soon as MJ finishes. He set her headphones on her seat; his and the headphones divider in his pocket. On hearing the rhythm of her footsteps coming down, he immediately gets up from his seat, giving her enough space to let her enter their aisle.

He hears her whisper, “Thanks,” as he sat down.

He pulls out his headphones and offers her the divider to plug-in. He eyes her hands as she tapped on his screen to pick another podcast and then nestles into her seat.

The hours they spend sitting so close together, keep him smiling until she catches him and then he shrugs and acts focused and serious until she’s engrossed in the podcast and starts talking back to it. He laughs to himself at having achieved his first goal of the trip. They’re talking and laughing, taking their time with each, as Peter pauses every time MJ speaks and MJ pauses every time he asks a question. He finds himself a little sleepy, but the joy of everything going to plan on the plane ride is giving him energy for arriving in Venice.

On running into Ned, he finds him holding hands with Betty, looking like a lovesick puppy. “So,” Peter asks, furrowing his eyebrows, “how was the flight?”

“It was lovely,” Betty answers taking her smile from Ned’s eyes to Peter’s. “How about you?”

Peter nods and says, “it was good-”

“We listened to my favorite podcasts the whole time,” MJ chimed in, “couldn’t sleep--

“You picked the episodes, Mich--MJ--I didn’t know you wanted to sleep…”

“It’s okay, loser,” she says, “just messin' with ya,” she tucks her stray lock away from her face and tilts her head away from him, and his heart drops. Why does her sarcastic smirk make him swoon?

Before he could answer himself, Mr. Harrington calls out to them to board the bus to the hotel.

He and his decathlon peers shuffle to load the bus with their baggage and then stumble towards a line entering the bus. Peter is the last to board, pulling away from the crowd to send Nick Fury to voicemail yet again. Not this time, he thinks to himself, not this field trip.

He boards the bus and then scans seats to find a place to land. He spots MJ sitting next to Brad, oh, crap, he thinks to himself taking in Brad’s smile, so close.

MJ 

Brad tries to engage MJ on the documentaries that were available, giving perspective as someone who didn’t get snapped. He tries to sound smart, insightful, but the greenness of his outlook leaves her bored until he shifts the focus of the conversation and turns towards pointing to memes appearing on his Instagram. “You got long-distance?” MJ asks.

“Yeah,” he jokes, “my dad wanted to make sure I posted updates of the trip,” he leans in and whispers, “he doesn’t trust the place we’re staying but Mister. Harrington didn’t pay him any mind.”

MJ gives a slow nod, their socio-economic differences thick in the air Brad wanted to cross. He was pretty enough. She saw the appeal others assigned to his face, easy in the eyes, defined facial bone structure. He’d be easy to sketch, but the lack of crisis in his eyes made him too easy of a subject.

IN VENICE

As soon as they’re settled into their rooms at the mediocre inn Mr. Harrington picked out, MJ takes out her tourist book and her sketchbook, loads them in her bookbag and walks down to meet the rest of the class. Ned and Betty are acting like an old married couple, debating on what to see first;Flash is recording himself and talking to his pseudo followers about the quality of the inn. Peter, per usual, is nowhere to be found, until Mr. Harrington calls out, “Final call,” and then there he is sliding down the banister, arms up like wings.

“Here!” he squeals as Mr. Harrington sighs.

MJ’s spotted looking at him and gives a head nod as they start walking outside. There’s no way he can pick up on my nervousness, MJ thought to herself, we’re just teammates and friends on a trip together who kept each other up on the flight there. Her first trip across the ocean, she took in one of the seats of European colonialism, falling apart not having garnered as many spoils as other colonial-empire centers. The decaying glory days of colonial and Renaissance Venice captured her attention. As much as she wanted to sketch it, she was taking it in, wondering when the US empire would fall--would the US also have buildings sinking into the sea, or would California just break away and devastate the US economy?

Walking around with little money to spend and an eye for detail, she caught herself picking up slang and expressions among Italians, ‘Bo,’ being a word that, from facial expressions and body language could mean a variety of things. In the midst of being another summer tourist in Venice, taking in the sights, sounds and consumerism, she literally runs into Peter.

Well, actually, he wasn’t looking where he was going, so he ran into her.

“Hey,” he says smiling, eyes widening.

“Hey,” she responds.

They talk about their day so far until a monster appears and then, all of a sudden Peter's gone. She follows and keeps pace with Ned and Betty. She turns around and can’t spot him but with water everywhere and buildings on the brink of falling, she decided to keep running and work through her concern later.  _ Where did he go?  _ She thinks to herself when they are the first back at the inn where they’re staying.  _ Why is he never around when bad things happen?  _

She’s observant. She sees a pattern. In her sketchpad, she starts making a list of disappearances. DC. Homecoming. The field trip that the donut spaceship in the sky cancelled. Before that, the Stark internship prompting him to cancel all his extracurriculars, almost academic decathlon. He was a mild-mannered good student until he developed muscles, until Spiderman appeared and with another alien monster, Parker was nowhere to be found...again.

She stays in her room, thinking about the male escort theory Yang suggested. Unlikely because he’s such a rambler and he struggled so hard with Liz at practice. And sometimes, sometimes she couldn’t help but think his rambling and the thousands of podcast episodes on his phone could arguably be improved yet clumsy efforts at getting her attention. But then why did he just leave her there, if he was Spider-Man, why didn’t he just tell her? 

At the sound of her classmates filing in, she leaves her room and walks down to see them gathering in the lobby. When she arrived, she left Leeds and Brant there, calming down, mostly Ned reassuring her. He was good boyfriend-material for Brant, she had to admit. She remains on the stairs, intrigued by her classmates’ experiences and hasty internet searches post-attack. 

She doesn’t see him again till the class is in the inn lobby watching the news coverage. It wouldn’t have been the right time to bring it up, she thought to herself. There was a new threat and, as a world, they were still trying to make sense of losing time and the changes that those who were blipped were waking up to. Their classmates compared Spider-Man and Mysterio like baseball players. The longing for a hero when monsters arise, who wouldn’t? Who didn’t?

She thought of Peter that way, mild-mannered and kind even after he lost his uncle. He showed up to class every day, greeted people like her with kindness and, even as Flash continued to call him Penis, never pursuing him with hostility or aggression like other cismen are socialized to do. The respect she had for Parker pre-physical definition and increased absences never changed. While his outsides didn’t match what would be expected of his insides as he got subtly good-looking. It’s not like he grew afoot. He didn’t. He just grew more defined; he stands up taller, and his once thin frame carries meat that made him look average.

_ Stop staring, _ MJ tells herself as she caught Flash saying that Spider-Man was better than Mysterio. She retreated into her room to draw. She didn’t realize how late it had gotten, using her phone as a lamp, until she heard someone mumbling in the hallway. As she peeked out her room, she saw Peter walking to the opposite side of the hallway, “Hey,” she calls out to him.

“Hey,” he says, arms crossed, in a change of clothes and hair mostly dry. “Did you see anything today?”

She shakes her head, “No, I was running,” she adds, “running away.”

“Yeah,” he says, “I was running away, too.”

“We lost you,” she admits, “Leeds, Brant and I ran here.”

“Oh,” Peter says searching the ground, keeping his eyes lowered but on the right, “I got really scared and ran in the other direction. Luckily buildings didn’t fall on me.”

“Luckily,” she adds, taking a breath,  _ he’s lying to me. _ ”Just glad you made it back okay.”

“Me, too,” he says, “I mean, I’m glad everyone’s safe.”

Their eyes meet for a moment. She feels her heart coming up in her throat, and then Brad decides to name the new superhero Mysterio and she finds herself explaining that Mysterio means “mystery.” 

When she turns to check on Parker, he’s standing there with a face she can’t quite explain. Not fear, something close to relief. She looks away before his eyes meet hers.  _ He’s too good at that.  _


	2. Almost Caught

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spider-Man Far From Home setting, but it is plot adjacent. SPOILERS  
MJ's awake when Peter returns from meeting with Fury and Beck.  
Peter and MJ sit together on the bus to Prague.

##  ALMOST CAUGHT

PETER

As Peter returns to the hotel after Fury dropped him off, he counts on no one being awake. As he walks up the stairs, however, he hears, “Hey,” from a familiar voice.

On turning towards his right, he sees MJ smiling at him. He forces a smile back, holding his breath. There she is with a messy bun, and stray hairs surrounding her face. _ Wow she’s pretty, _ he thought to herself, and then said, “Oh, hi!”

“Why are you up?” she asks coming out of the room, wearing an Angela Davis t-shirt and sweatpants.

“Still awake, so I took a walk,” he answers exhaling and adjusting his backpack strap, “ you?”

“Stayed up drawing the crises of the day,” she answers holding up her drawing pad and pencil. “You know how I get.”

He nods slowly, counting his head movements so he doesn’t nod too much. Sometimes he does that. Ned told him as much before they went on the trip, especially when MJ was around, so he had to count. The magic number was 3, but he could get away with 4 if he wasn’t nodding too slowly. “Can I see them?” he asks. 

Her eyes widen and she clutches to the sketchpad to her chest, “not done.”

“Oh,” he says, disappointed, “my mind’s wired with everything that went on today.” 

“Me, too,” she says, “drawing helps. Walking didn’t help?”

“Not really,” he admits, thinking about his argument with Fury, then remembering his audience, “well, yeah, but I’m still worried because, you know, we  _ don’t  _ know where it came from or if there will be others--

“Others?”

“I’m just a little cynical with these things,” he offers walking closer to her, “and I just wanted a normal vacation.”

“Well-deserved, I think,” she says, “I wanted a superhero free field trip, you know?”

He takes in a deep breath, “me, too.”

They stand a foot apart, he looking at his feet until he feels her searching his body for something. “Will you show me your drawings when you’re done?”

She nods and purses her lips together in a quick grin. 

“I should probably check on Ned,” Peter says, “make sure he’s okay.”

“Why wouldn’t he be?” MJ asks, “ he seemed fine when we were watching the news together.”

“I dunno,” Peter says trying to think of a good lie, “sometimes things affect him later. I’ll see ya MJ.”

“Well,” she says eyes darting left to right, “goodnight, Parker.”

“G”night,” he answers, cheeks warming. He goes to bed hopeful Fury will leave him alone and that he can tell MJ how he feels in the right way.

In the morning, he hurries downstairs to join Midtown folks gather in the lobby for their next destination. He takes in a breath when Mr. Harrington says their plans have changed.  _ Fuck  _ he says to himself as they line up to board the bus, their driver the guy that brought him back from Fury the night before. He’s tempted to take a look at the glasses they gave him, but then MJ is eyeing him and he tempts fate, “Wanna go in on a pair?” he asks.

She nods smiling, “Your other partner in crime is attached pretty tight, isn’t he?”

“Yeah,” he sighs, “which is funny because he suggested we act like bachelors--”

“Bachelors?” she asks eyebrows crossing.

“Uh,” Peter’s face turns bright red not knowing how to answer the question without giving himself away or without setting himself up to fail. “He thought European girls like us more--”

Michelle

She watches his face, concentrating on it instead of the pang in her heart. She searches for his eyes, which he keeps to the ground.

She takes a beat of silence as they load their bags on the bus and then follow their classmates onto the level upgraded bus and sit next to each other. He smiles at her, face still red and she considers how to help him out of the crisis. Does she want to give this messy boy a bone? “Hey,” she begins tilting her head to the side, “Was that the conversation I overheard about the spoons?”

She watches his eyes widen as he tucks his book bag under the chair in front of him and considers the last time she saw his face in a crisis.

“Ned probably didn’t realize Betty was into him, too--

“Too?” Peter asks in an exhale.

“Oh, yeah,” MJ says with a smirk, “he probably wanted to play it cool thinking a girl like Betty wouldn’t be interested in a guy like Ned--but they make perfect sense.”

“Yeah,” Peter chuckles, “they’re acting like an old married couple, sharing thoughts about like Mysterio’s name, finishing each other’s sentences--

“And the matching hats,” MJ laughs, “Just look at them,” she says pointing to them with her chin.

She turns her gaze towards him for a second. Their eyes meet for a second before he turns to the couple she was talking about.

“Yeah,” he says turning to them, “totally.”

“They’re totally mushy with their affection,” MJ deadpans, “and Europeans liking Americans? Not a thing.”

“No?” Peter asks.

She shakes her head and goes on about how the US had lost some if its superpower status after the blip. Some economies were able to recover more than others because of the decreased population and the temporarily recovered resources like water and land. With their shoulders touching and his 100-word questions, he’s letting her know how he listens and she likes that. She’s always liked that about Peter, his investment in people, in their ideas and their emotions.

It would make sense if he was Spider-Man, she thought to herself, he has the heart for it.

When they took a pit stop, she asks Peter, “You want anything?”

He shakes his head, with a smile, “No, I’mna wait to use the bathroom.”

She shrugs and follows the crowd off the bus, wondering if and how would be the appropriate time to set up allowing him to make a move.

Peter

They spent the rest of the ride to Prague learning about execution sites near the hotel they were visiting. Once they had a list, MJ leaned back and closed her eyes. Once he felt she was sleeping, he sent a text message to Ned about the attack.

PETER - we’re going to need to find a place for everyone to hide.

Ned - why?

PETER - because SHIELD hijacked our trip for a reason

Ned - guy in the chair moment?

PETER - guy in the chair moment

Ned - what about the thing Tony gave you

PETER - Uh, sitting next to MJ and I haven’t had time to check it out

Ned - MJ??? How’s that going? :)

PETER - so far so good :) we’ve spent so much time together though she almost caught me last night and they just gave me a new suit for the Prague attack

Ned - Wow, a new suit? I wonder what Tony gave you, can I look at it later?

PETER - Of course, guy in the chair

Ned - :)

Once they arrive at the hotel, Peter and Ned made eye contact, which means Ned needed to leave Betty for a bit. As the teachers check them in, the boys check out the glasses. Once Peter realizes how much power he has at his disposal, he hijacked the evening’s plans and reroutes them to an opera so they won’t be outside. He didn’t mean to bring them into danger, he just wanted to be left out of solving this problem. 

Once Mr. Harrington announces the news, Ned runs interference and talks about how enriching the opera will be.  _ What would I do without Ned,  _ Peter thinks to himself watching his classmates’ disappointed reactions. And, as Peter takes a moment to take in MJ, he catches her eyes darting between Ned and him. She has her classic investigative smirk on her face, thin eyes...she’s in suspicion mode. Was he going to have time to address that in the midst of prepping for the final elemental and keeping on track?


	3. Sidetracked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once they arrive at the opera house, he finally musters up the courage to smooth his pinky across the top of her hand to get her attention and say, “You look pretty.”  
“Therefore I have value?” she asks leaning her hand into his, the one that was trying to get her attention.   
“No, no,” he insists feeling like an idiot, pancaking her hand, “that’s not what I meant.”  
“I’m just messing with you,” she says grabbing a part of his shirt collar and then quickly tugging on his ear, “Dumbo. You look pretty, too“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this revision, I wanted Peter to need Ned more and I wanted MJ to rely on Betty, as a set up to double-date potential. Please let me know what you think at the end.

SIDETRACKED

Peter follows Ned into his hotel room, closing the door behind him and says, “I need your help,” he adds setting down his bag by Ned’s door.

“Of course, of course,” Ned says nodding, pulling out his laptop and sitting at the desk, “guy in the chair.

“Yeah,” Peter says as he plops himself on the bed. “Guy in the chair.”

“So, what do you need me to do,” Ned asks turning to face Peter.

Peter pulls out EDITH and asks, “ how should I manage these?”

“What are they?” Ned asks as Peter puts them on.

Peter puts them on; reads out the note Tony left with them and they come to life.

“Peter,” Ned asks, “what’s happening?”

“They’re a control mechanism for drones and technology and they can read everything…”Edith-- glasses Tony gave me,” Peter answers, “I haven’t had a chance to check them out…”

“Woah,” Ned said, “what can they do?”

“Let’s see…”

While Peter and Ned were getting ready and learning what EDITH can do...

MJ

MJ doesn’t take long to get dressed. She decides to wear her hair down. She puts on the only dress she brought with her and all her feminist self-love doesn’t keep her from feeling nervous in it. She doesn’t do dresses but her mom insisted. As glad as she is her mom insisted on formal attire she rarely wears, she’s also, well, going to be in a theater, in the dark, hopefully sitting to the boy she hopes will find the courage to set them up for being more than friends, even if it’s just an arm around her chair. She’s feminist enough to know that, in situations like hers, she needs the white boy to publicly admit he wants the Black girl. 

Four hours of sitting together in the dark will hopefully give them that. Then they can worry about the other stuff. LIke where he goes when there’s danger, if he’s really Spider-Man. And if he does nothing, says nothing, then she’ll know it’s all in her head and keep her crush to herself, and work it out in more crises drawing with less foci on his crises because, self-preservation is key in high school. 

Remaining invisible is also important.

But she doesn’t want to be invisible to Parker. 

_ Fuck _ , she thinks, _ I hate being a teenager. _

When she’s dressed, she goes to knock on a door where she hopes to find some level of support. “One moment,” her classmate’s chipper voice said, “Ned, I’m not--

“It’s not Ned,” MJ says from her side of the door.

“Oh,” Betty chirps, “coming.”

MJ takes a deep breath as Betty opens the door. The white woman wears a robe over her dress, makeup not quite done. “Hey, MJ!” She says with a smile, “what’s up?”

“I need your help,” she says walking past Betty into the room.

Betty closes the door as MJ watches her, wondering how to start.

“Help--

“Yeah,” MJ interjects smoothing her hand over her head, “with Peter, you know, because of you and Ned…”

“Peter? Really?” Betty’s face lights up. “I knew it, Ned was telling me how much progress you two have been making, it’ll be so nice to go on double dates…” MJ braces herself as Betty rattles off how cute they’d be together and how excited she is for both of them. Betty’s girliness, as unbearable as it has been to watch, serves to put MJ at ease. Amid Betty rattling off about their chemistry, she’s indirectly alluding to the fact that it’s obvious, which gives MJ more lift under her wings.

“So,” MJ begins once Betty’s monologue about how cute they would be together come to an end, “I was thinking that I’d suggest we sit next to each other, you know…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Betty agrees as she finishes putting on her makeup, “it’s important to let him make the move--I know how anti-feminist--

“No,” MJ said, “I agree. I need him to be direct--the work we did on the Black Dahlia presentation, he needs to step up for me, to make it clear he’s not intimidated by a strong, intelligent woman. That he can keep up with me-

“Yeah,” Betty said, “Ned grabbing my hand during turbulence is how we opened up at first…”

“Peter’s a lot slower moving,” MJ comments, “we laughed, we rode on the way from Venice together, and there was a moment late at night after the monster in Venice...and he’s hot and cold, more hot but I just, I don’t do this thing called waiting well and I don’t want to make a fool of myself and he’s still getting nervous even though he’s had plenty of opportunities…”

“Boys,” Betty sighs, “Ned had no idea about me and I thought I was putting myself out there, you know, it took turbulence for us…”

MJ looked down at her floral dress, a lot simpler than Betty’s cleaner and neater color-coordinated outfit. Only she could pull off mean girls' color coordination and not look like a complete Becky. “It’s probably the secret he’s keeping,” MJ whispers to herself as Betty goes to the bathroom, undoubtedly to put the finishing touches on her outfit.

As she comes out looking like a catalog model, the door knocks again. MJ gets up, hoping she doesn’t have to witness more of Ned and Betty gross and cheesy PDA, following close behind as Betty says, “one moment!”

Peter POV

Standing next to Ned, catching MJ standing behind Betty, Peter feels his face heat up and he doesn’t know what to say. Her eyes are as wide-eyed as his and she looks so pretty with her hair down and her smile stretching ear to ear and as he thinks about her smile, he forgets how close she is and starts staring at her lips, wondering how their plumpness would feel in between his lips and how she’d respond to his tongue smoothing against them and he has to stop himself from thinking too many thoughts because he needed to go work with Mysterio later that night and leave MJ with Ned and Betty and, aww, man, he was going to give up sitting next to MJ for four hours in the dark which would have been so nice but he had to go save the world.

The Avengers need to come back to Earth so he could be a teenager again.

“Hey,” he hears MJ say, bringing him out of his thought, “let’s go.”

“Oh,” he says, heat rising to his face again, “yeah, we should go catch up with the others.”

They follow a few yards behind Ned and Betty who make being in love and together look so easy. “So,” he asks, “what were you doing in Betty’s room?”

“Talking about the trip,” MJ answers. “Why were you walking with Ned?”

“Oh,” Peter answers rubbing his hand against the back of his neck, “talking about the trip, because, you know, we haven’t had much time to talk because he and Betty were so unexpected.”

“Yeah,” MJ said nodding as they strolled down the stairs, “all it took was turbulence,”

“Turbulence,” Peter breathed as he felt MJ’s hands get closer to his. He lifts his hand to run his fingers through his hair. _ I hate monsters wanting to destroy the earth right now, _ he thinks to himself trying to not look grumpy or sad because MJ could get the wrong message, _ I hate that NONE of the Avengers can be here and let me have a normal field trip for once. Gosh, I just wanna hold her hand. _

They arrive in the lobby to find Brad looking at his phone, Flash recording a video and Mr. Harrington doing a final count of students before they head out. “Two by two, people,” Mr. Dell directs them to line up, “I’ll be the caboose as Mr. Harrington leads them.”

Peter nods, walking to stand behind Ned.

“Hey, MJ,” Betty calls out waving her hand.

_ Why is Betty calling on MJ? _ Peter thinks to himself. _ They’re going to be walking next to each other!? No!! _

Yet, there she is standing behind Betty. So he does his best to walk up next to her, behind Leeds, in the lines their teachers asked them to organize.

As they walk up to the opera house, Peter doesn’t know what to do. Ned and Betty are acting lovey dovey, holding hands and pointing to the carnaval sites; their friends behind them are on their phones which means he’s gotta think of something, but he can’t. And that’s she’s quiet, not commenting on the history of the town or the buildings has him extra nervous because he could always rely on her quick wit and detailed knowledge about her environment to ease the tension.

His brain whirs with reviewing the plan and every time he catches MJ looking at him from her eyes, his stomach knots up and the plan escapes him because all he wants to do is be with her.

Once they arrive at the opera house, he finally musters up the courage to smooth his pinky across the top of her hand to get her attention and say, “You look pretty.”

“Therefore I have value?” she asks leaning her hand into his, the one that was trying to get her attention. 

“No, no,” he insists feeling like an idiot, pancaking her hand, “that’s not what I meant.”

“I’m just messing with you,” she says grabbing a part of his shirt collar and then quickly tugging on his ear, “Dumbo. You look pretty, too“

“Oh,” he chuckles as Fury begins talking in his earpiece.” thanks.”

“Wanna go in on a pair?” She asks.

“To sit next to you?”

“Yeah,” she says shrugging.

_I wanna say yes, I can't say yes,_ and then Fury's asking him if he’s in position and he's letting go of her hand to place it over his ear as he tries to tell Fury, “No,” too loud because she asks, “No you don’t wanna sit with me or no--

“No, no,” he corrects shaking his head and adjusting his backpack, “I just gotta--you go grab seats and I’ll grab us a--

“I’ll just save a seat next to me,” she interrupts with a smile that melts his heart.

Michelle POV

Michelle turns to find Peter and Ned talking to each other, Peter adjusting his backpack and walking out the door. She then watches as Ned and Betty walk up to the front row and sit next to her.

“Peter came down with something,” Ned begins, “and he’s so sorry that he won’t be able to--

“Oh,” Michelle says, “okay.”

“You should go see if he’s okay, MJ,” Betty insists, “it’s hard to not feel well so far from home.”

MJ thinks about it, looks back at the door. She waits until the lights dim to get up and get out of there. “Great idea,” MJ whispers getting up from her seat.

“MJ!” she hears Ned hiss but doesn’t turn around. All she could think is if he was really sick, why would he have made the trek all the way up here? If he was really sick, why didn’t he tell their teachers? She hoped going out would help her find some answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading; I updated from original chapter 3 to include a lead up to MJ grabbing onto his ear that spoke to her concern of needing him to act on his feelings for her. I wanted him to grab her hand as a gesture that said, of course, you have more value than being pretty, please know that ;)


	4. About those webs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Wanna grab a drink?” Mysterio asks as he dusts himself off.  
“Gotta go see about a girl,” Peter says not containing the skip in his step.  
“You sure?”  
Peter nods, “Yeah,” he feels his face warm because what they just did was really powerful, “but next time--  
“Hopefully there is no next time,” Mysterio says, “right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long to finish. My Beta and I couldn't agree with what to do about how the changes would deviate from Mysterio. I wanted to you to see more of MJ's conflicted emotions about being right and missing an opportunity to move forward with Peter. Let me know what you think.

Peter

Peter takes a deep breath as Mysterio gets up from the off the ground. His web catching on the air right in front of the Ferris Wheel was weird, but everyone’s okay. Mysterio risked his life without losing it. Peter can go home.

“Wanna grab a drink?” Mysterio asks as he dusts himself off.

“Gotta go see about a girl,” Peter says not containing the skip in his step.

“You sure?”

Peter nods, “Yeah,” he feels his face warm because what they just did was powerful, “but next time--

“Hopefully there is no next time,” Mysterio says, “right?”

“Right, yeah, of course, no, gotta,” Peter says pointing behind him with his thumb, “gotta go.”

“I’ll hold you to that drink, Peter,” Mysterio says.

Peter returns to the place he grabbed his backpack, tucks himself into that corner and changes into civilian clothes. Walking up the stairs to the hallway of rooms where Midtown students were staying, he stopped himself in front of MJ’s door. Before he could knock, however, MJ opens the door. 

MJ

MJ finds answers when the Night Monkey accidentally throws something in her general area. Of course with the fire and the monster, he doesn’t see her pick up the tool of technology. On picking it up, she notes how similar the webs are to ones that appeared in Washington DC and throughout Queens. She tucks the metallic piece of equipment close to her and makes her way back to the hotel.  _ Hopefully he’ll tell me the truth now that I have proof.  _

Once in her room, she uses hotel internet to scroll through footage of Spider-Man to compare it to Night Monkey. They move the same way; they shoot webs the same way. Peter disappeared both times either of them was doing something.

She paces in her room, weighing her hypotheses against the evidence. When he got the Stark Internship, he had started quitting a lot of his other commitments. He never did say where he was and what he was doing when he was blipped. He disappeared from the bus from their pre-blip field trip, even as everyone was looking at the flying donut--which is what Ned called the space ship.

A monster has attacked them everywhere they’ve been since they arrived. Peter asked her what she saw of the first attack and admitted he was running but it took him a minute to say ‘away.’ He had gotten physically fit and defined overnight, after that field trip to OsCorps...he ducked out of the dance the same night Liz’s dad was arrested.

The only way to be sure was to ask him, right? After mulling it over in her room, she decides to check out to see if he is in his or Ned’s room to ask him point-blank. When she opens the door, she finds Petter turning his foot’s path towards her door. “Hey,” she hears him say with that smile that quickens her heart.

“Where were you?” she asks trying to keep her voice level.

“I got,” he answers looking up, “lost.”

_ Again with the lying,  _ she thinks to herself,  _ it’s so easy for him. I can’t...I can’t ask him like this,  _ she decides and instead keeps her commentary light, trying to use it to frame her disappointment in the moment. “So much for Paris,” she says, shrugging and grabbing her door, “Good night,” she says as she closes it because anything more and she may explode with frustration and, dare anyone see it,  _ feelings.  _

Peter

As soon as she closes the door, he winces knowing he doesn’t want their time together on the trip to end. “Okay,” he says to himself, I’m gonna do it here then, and walks closer to her door. Before he can knock, she’s opening her door again. 

“Hey,” he says taken aback.

“Oh, hey,” she answers, looking as surprised as he.

“Look, I don’t want this trip,” he begins as he adjusts his backpack strap, “to be over yet and I wanna go do something fun that’s not on the itinerary or planned or with Mister. Harrington--

“Yes,” MJ answers, eyes widening, and with a more upbeat tone than before. She wants to hang out with me, too?!?!

To confirm he asks, “Yes as in you wanna go?”

“Yes,” she answers and her smile is warming him all over.

“Oh, okay, awesome, I’ll see you downstairs in ten minutes.”

“Meet me downstairs in five,” she answers, grinning, her voice growing more sweet, so sweet that when Peter walks down to his room, he can’t help but skip his first few steps before feeling too weird.

MJ

MJ puts the tech in her backpack, puts on her jacket, throws on the backpack and goes downstairs. On getting to the lobby she sees that he has changed into a t-shirt and hoodie, his uniform. He’s calmed his hair down a bit, which is a little disappointing. She likes his messy hair. “So, what do you wanna do?” he asks her, his face all smiles and sparkly eyes.

“I dunno,” she shrugs, excited about the potential of getting her questions answered.

As soon as they’re walking next to each other, they’re both smiling, playing that eye meeting game they play. A game, MJ realizes, because they both start, meet each other, and turn around.

She remembers this game, one that she tended to play by herself when in middle school. A game that compelled her to retreat into herself, a game that reminded her, before that she was the only one like her around. That wasn’t the case at Midtown. And while the others who looked like her were cute enough and smart enough, there was something about Peter Parker that made that game fun. Confirming her suspicions about Spider-Man would peak her trip too, be in the know because she figured it out.

She only begins to rattle off about the executions as a way to stave off her fear. “Sorry,” she says realizing it may have been much.

“That’s okay,” he says with a smile. 

_ oh, is that a dimple, i’m done she thinks, that dimple and I are done. _

They continue walking and as soon as her knuckles brushed his hand, he starts talking.

“Ah,” he says as their hands brush against each other, “Whew…”

“You okay, Parker?” she asks as he pulls his hand up and runs it through his hair. 

“There’s been something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about,” he begins reaching for the back of his pants, “for a while now.” 

She slows her pace and turns around to give him the audience he’s asking for.

Peter

When MJ stops and turns to him, he pulls out the box palm-sized box with the Black Dahlia. He takes a couple of steps towards her, You got this, he tells himself as he lifts his eyes from the gift in his hands, “MJ, I--

“Am Spider-Man,” she interrupts with a shrug.

“Wait,” he says not expecting to be cut off, let alone with that accusation, “what?! no! What makes you think I’m Spider-Man?”

“I’ve been watching you,” she begins, “for a while now.” As much as he hears her list, this is not what he wanted to start the conversation about his feelings for MJ. Sure, her attention to detail means she’s been paying attention to him, paying a lot of attention to him. But was it because she thought he was Spider-Man or because she was into him. He presses his fingers against the rim of the box,  _ Aww man, _ he needs his guy in the chair for this one.  _ Why does she keep insisting? _ “The news said it was the Night Monkey!”

“Do Spider-Man and the Night Monkey use the same webs?” she asks as she pulls something out of her bag.

She holds it out in front of him and he can’t tell what it is. It’s not something he’s ever seen before.

“I dunno,” he says with a shrug of his shoulder, “maybe. Maybe he’s a Spider Monkey, who knows?”

He wants to change the subject. He wants to go back in time to leave Spider-Man out of this conversation.  _ She doesn’t want superheroes. He doesn’t want a superhero in this conversation.  _

MJ sighs, “Maybe Yang’s right, and you’re a male escort.”

“I am not a male escort,” he exclaims, his dreams for this trip crumbling around him. “I’ve never even--

“Never even what, Parker?”

He took a deep breath, hung his head for a beat before asking, “I just thought that,” Peter begins trying to find the words, taking a few steps towards her, “I just thought that maybe--

MJ

MJ finds her heart beating faster with his proximity. She tries to cut the distance between them, maybe he’ll be honest with her and she can let her guard down. She’s strong enough to hear it; to bear it or share it. “You just thought that maybe?”

And then a light blinked from the tech she had in her hand.

Its light surprises both of them as the images of the elementals that emerged from them. The elemental projection followed by what appeared to be a hologram of Mysterio “fighting him.” She alternates her face between the illusion and Peter’s face, wondering what he was thinking. He’s lowering to see what it is; he’s pushing her back like Spider-Man does in the clips people have recorded of him taking on bad guys. 

As they reflect on the night’s events, and he starts using “we” about what they saw, he says, with a huff, “MJ, I just--I’m Spider-Man and I just--”

She feels herself watching the transition of their conversation from afar. He’s admitting she’s Spider-Man, she’s processing being right all the while wondering why he  _ really  _ wanted to speak to her, all the while wondering why someone would put so many people in harm’s way to make himself a hero.

_ White men _ , she thinks. Even though Peter’s white, he’s not a  _ white man,  _ not in the way guys like Mysterio are, but he’s doing that thing, that thing where she’s a girl and can’t seem to understand and now he has to let her in because he’s freaking out, but she’s excited because she’s right, she was right--

As she and Peter run back to the hotel, the excitement of figuring out he was Spider-Man starts to wear off as they approach the hotel and his eyes dart back and forth and he begins rambling about what it means and whether or not Mysterio targeted him on purpose.

“Peter,” she says setting her hand on his arm as they get to the elevator, “Peter!”

“Yeah,” he says focusing on her hand resting on his arm.

He moves closer to her and she has to focus on the dilemma not the distance she wants to close between them. His honesty was an accident and there’s a guy who doesn’t mind killing people to fashion himself a hero. 

“Peter,” she spits out, “what are you going to do?”

“I dunno,” he says smoothing the hand of his free arm over his hair. “I gotta see if I can look up what that tech is on Edith--”

“Edith?”

“A tool Tony left me,”he answers as the elevator opens up on their floor. “And then I gotta get to Berlin where Fury invited Mysterio and--

“Peter,” she interrupts him again as they reach the door, “I’m trying to catch up here.”

“Oh,” he says opening the door, “sorry. I’m used to talking to Ned--

“Ned knows?” she asks as she follows him into his room.

“Yeah,” Peter answers walking to the windows, “and I wonder if Mysterio knew and whether or not he’s watching us now,” he continues as he closes the curtains, “and how I’m going to reach Fury considering he’s probably watching us--

“Who else knows?”

“May,” he answers as he walks to the bed, “Happy Hogan,” he continues as he throws his hoodie on his bed and reaches for the Night Monkey suit, “Misses Stark…”

She watches him peel his shirt off and takes in Peter’s other powers. It’s hard to process that a boy who lost his parents and then his uncle decides to use the change of his physical abilities to help others. It’s something she’d like to think she would do, though not really sure.

The world has been unkind to her in other ways. Thinking about this, she begins to lament focusing on his Spider-Man identity instead of her feelings.

Just as quickly as her mind shifts from one idea to another, he’s in front of her, boxer brief band showing on top of his jeans, bare chested, eyebrows raised and arms frozen. 

His voice pulls her out of a trance, “MJ,” she hears him say, “can you,” he continues twirling his finger in the air.

“Right,” she says, pressing her lips together in a feeble smile, “sorry.”

She takes in a deep breath and considers turning around again. He’s told her his biggest secret, that’s gotta mean something right. Then again, she wouldn’t want to be that woman, the one that drools over a well-defined guy, but there’s a lot more to consider about her feelings. Peter knew the elementals were going to be there. Went to save the world, or so he thought, instead of hanging out with her. And he wanted to hang with her. He held her hand, he let her hold his arm, their whole night post-opera started because  _ he wanted to talk to he _ r and then his one lie led her to exposing another lie. _ _

Ned walks in, starting another lie, breaking her angsty teenage girl moment of bubbling feelings, only to be resurrected when Peter says, “Don’t worry,” adding, “she knows. I told her.”

“I figured it out,” she deadpans, narrowing her eyes. Make it clear that her intellect put the pieces together. She’s that bad bitch. 

“So you’ve been plotting this whole time?”

She sees his face and says, “Yes and no, he was talking to me like he talks to you, but it was mostly me--

“It looks like Mysterio’s been using Illusion tech to create the elementals,” Peter begins to explain as he throws on his mask. 

“Oh, what do you want me to tell Mister Harrington?”

“May wants me to stay with family here--

“Easy,” Ned answers.

“You guys lie with such ease,” MJ thinks out loud, “horrible at whispers, but you’re lying…”

“Guy in the chair,” Ned says, “more important things to consider--

“Don’t tell anyone,” Peter says with a sigh, “whoever knows will be in grave danger--sorry, MJ, I didn’t mean--

“Peter,” Ned says, “we’ve got this.”

And with that, an hour after he came to her door, there she was, watching leave her again, and who knows if they’d ever get a chance to...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Let me know what you think. Hopefully the next chapter comes to me quicker than this one. :)


	5. Letting Love in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She takes in the box, and opens it. She finds what was once a black flower, a few petals broken off and slides it into her pocket, feeling like her doubt’s squelched by the gesture, the memory of a box he was holding in Prague, a question cut off by the other truth she insisted revealing first.The joy in her heart tinged with the reality of what was trying to come through that door. Fuck, she thought to herself, really?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I struggled with how to write this scene given what I decided to cut out from the film. I still use important dialog from FFH. Thanks for waiting so long for this chapter. Please let me know what you think :) 
> 
> **These characters belong to Marvel Comics and Sony.

After Peter leaves for Berlin, she stays with Ned. “How do you do it?” She asks him, “how do you watch him leave?”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s our friend,” she begins, “our age, and he’s taking on stuff at least I would never dream of taking on…”

Ned shrugs, “Guy in the chair,” he explains, “finding out Peter was Spider-Man, being sedated by Nick Fury, are pretty cool--I mean it’s scary considering that, before the spider bite, we just dedicated ourselves to aca-dec, video games, and being overwhelmed, high school freshmen…”

“Yeah,” MJ breathes looking around the room, realizing they each have their own, “it’s a lot. How long have  _ you  _ known?”

“Since before the blip, before Homecoming,” Ned answers matter of factly, sitting on the bed. “I was waiting for him to come back home and he crawled into his room, hands on the ceiling like nothing. I dropped the Lego Death Star we were building.”

“Random,” MJ says. “So you didn’t figure it out?”

“Peter’s a very private person, especially after Uncle Ben and then Mister Stark...” Ned answers, “me learning just opened a new area of friendship.”

“I only suspected because of what began lining up together.”

“I wouldn’t have thought about it if I hadn’t found out the way that I did. I’m just glad I’m not the only one at school who knows,” he smiles as he folds up Peter’s discarded clothes, “I don’t like cleaning up after him but who knows what will Mysterio will do or can do with him knowing...and why does he leave EDITH lying around?”

“Edith?”

“These glasses,” Ned explains, “they’re from Mister Stark, something about the next Iron Man--

“Next Iron Man?”

“Because Iron Man, turns out was a consultant but never a real  _ Avenger,  _ so I’m assuming Peter gets to pick who replaces him?”

“Oh,” MJ says with a shrug. Most of this is over her head and hopefully all will turn out okay and Peter will explain it later. 

MJ shrugs and is grateful that her skin color doesn’t completely give away her blushing, “so what do you do in a situation like this? Is he gonna come back tonight or--

“Oh,” Ned says standing up, “yeah, we need to pack his clothes. Given that he’s going to Berlin, he’s not going to make it back in time to leave with us.”

“How do we explain having his luggage if he “went to visit family”?

“He forgot it,” Ned chuckles, “duh. It’s so easy to lie about stuff like this because he’s so forgetful and absent-minded.”

“But isn’t that suitcase Uncle Ben’s?” MJ asks, “won’t he miss it?”

Ned sighs, “probably, but his secret identity is  _ really  _ important to him. And he wouldn’t want to give anything away so we should probably divide and conquer with his clothes…”

MJ nods slowly, following Ned’s lead. 

***

With the morning news they’re going to London, MJ grows incredibly concerned. Every trip changed had coincidentally involved an attack and, even though they killed the last fake elementals, she can’t help but think something is up. Because of the way they’re walking with their classmates, she can’t share her suspicions with Ned, and she’s concerned that if she texted him, they’ll really find out how much they’re being tracked. She follows the crowd as they make their way to a London double-decker, hoping to be wrong. 

As they make their way to the top of the bus and the clouds begin together, Ned tells her not to worry. It’s easy enough to say because, well, he’s used to this whole danger situation. The last time they were in a dangerous situation, she was watching from the outside. It was easy to be on the outside when there weren’t people who wanted to do to humans what a lot of white people were trying to do to people who weren’t white in the US. 

Now racism isn't the only thing she has to worry about. 

And so, post-blip she decided to people more, to talk to them. They  _ were  _ the least threatening and arguably, the nicest. She got into this mess of caring about what happens to people because they made it look so easy.. She got  _ involved  _ because of what it was like to die alone, reading a book with no one to hear her cry out for help.. She missed out on so much being stuck behind books all the time. When she came back from the blip, she knew she didn’t want to feel the way she did that day, not having done as much as she wanted, not having lived as much as she wanted. 

So when a fake elemental appeared out of the river and right next to their bus, she was running with people. She also told Ned, as they made it off the bridge and headed towards safety, that she suspected Mysterio was after them specifically. Running into Happy provided temporary relief until their new mode of transportation, his jet, as blown up.

As everyone runs for safety, Happy pulls on MJ for a moment. 

“MJ,” Happy swallows reaching into his pocket, “Spider-Man wanted me to give this to you…”

She takes in the box and opens it. She finds what was once a black flower, a few petals broken off and slides it into her pocket, feeling like her doubt’s squelched by the gesture, the memory of a box he was holding in Prague, a question cut off by the other truth she insisted revealing first. The joy in her heart tinged with the reality of what was trying to come through that door.  _ Fuck  _ , she thought to herself,  _ really?  _

The museum functions as a good cover until, of course, Mysterio’s drones start following them inside the hall.  _ How do these people walk into the face of danger all the time,  _ MJ thinks to herself as she searched her surroundings. 

What were they going to do to be able to get into the room without being shot at. On seeing the mace next to her, she gets an idea. Despite Happy telling her not to, she grabs it--heavier than what she first thought, and while it’s sound points the drone at her. Betty makes another distracting noise, which gives MJ enough time to hit the drone pointing at Betty. 

Everyone then runs into the vault. 

As soon as Happy breathes a sigh of relief, the drone is cutting through the door. 

MJ, still holding the mace, is processing another potential on the brink of death experience. Emotional vulnerability is weird, she admits, it doesn’t guarantee the best results. Here she is, in danger, partly because she tried to get close to someone she likes. It was a rush to buy them time, to tag-team albeit very briefly, with Betty on getting them out of danger.  _ Fuck being a damsel in distress _ , she had thought to herself, only to be in distress now. 

As people rattle off their what I should have done or what I failed to do bouts of grief, she’s grateful, at least, that she didn’t give up without a fight. That even though she didn’t really get anywhere near expressing her feelings, she at least helped. She at least faced death head-on, she at least got to see him smile and stutter over her…

And, just as the drone nears the completion of slicing a space for itself, it stops. It stops and everyone starts breathing. They slowly walked closer to the door, which fell open, to see the drones fly away from them. “MJ, where are you going?!”

Peter

The roller coaster of the past day were overwhelming. Between almost being killed and unintentionally being a part of that person’s death, all Peter wanted to do was go home. He’d been too quick to look for someone to replace the role Tony had in his life. Mysterio tried capitalizing off of that.

_ Man, I just wanna go home,  _ Peter thinks to himself as he walks through the wreckage of Mysterio’s mayhem. All he wanted a week ago was to be able to tell MJ he liked her on the Eiffel Tower. He wanted a break from all the superhero stuff. He wanted to be a teenager. He wanted to be with her as much as she would have allowed. He wanted her to like him for the boy he was not the superhero he wasn’t sure he always wanted to be. 

The superhero-ing for the world hurt too much. He just wanted to be the neighborhood Spider-Man. And after everything from that week, he was starting to think it’d be a good idea to take time off--no one was going to let him off the hook if he didn’t give himself a break. 

Taking in a deep breath, and walking towards the other side of the bridge, he sees someone else walking through the wreckage. Well, they were running, actually. Her brown hair and gray jacket give her away and she starts running faster.. “Peter!” he hears her whisper as she dropped what she was holding.

“MJ?”

“Hey,” she says, wrapping her arms around him, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he says into her shoulder, “Is everybody else okay?”

“Yeah,” she answers her arms still wrapped around him, “everyone else’s okay.” 

“What happened,” he asks not wanting to let her go. 

As she answers his question, he feels her heart race faster and squeezes her harder. He thought for a second he lost her. She seems to respond by squeezing him tighter and even though her voice starts to calm, her heart doesn’t. 

After they break away from each other’s embrace, he begins to miss the weight of her. The way she held him was just  _ perfect  _ after the past twenty-four hours. She starts talking about this guy who works for him giving her something.  _ No one works for me,  _ he thinks and then he sees that she’s pulling something out of her pocket. 

When she pulls out the broken Black Dahlia, though, his heart shattered again. 

  
  


MJ

As soon as she pulls out the necklace, he grabs her hands, explaining the plan he had for the necklace, she couldn’t help herself because he was finally doing the thing. All the things. His plan sounded so sweet she couldn’t help but kiss him. 

It was a quick kiss that helped her explain how bad she was at talking about her feelings, “I wasn’t only watching you because I thought you were Spider-Man,” she admits. 

He looks down, which makes her look down until he says, “That’s great.”

She looks up at his face and sees he’s all smiles and starry eyes behind his swooping lock and a few scraps on his forehead. Her heart jumped in her chest and she feels the smile come across her face like a contagious bug. 

“Black Dahlia,” she begins, and they both say, “like the murder,” which incites light laughter between them and just like that she’s entering new unexpected terrain with this boy who just days ago was so awkward about the clues she was throwing. 

“I’m sorry it’s broken,” he says breaking her train of thought.

“I actually like it better broken,” she responds looking at him from her under hair. 

The smiles are still there and her heart is demanding more space in her chest. 

“I really like you,” he admits so easy, like breathing.

“I really like you, too,” she answers, her heart getting the space it needs to swell from all the good things happening right then, between them. 

Then he kisses her not once, but twice, the second one involving his hand around her arm, her hand around his neck and some attempt at tongue that feels good and oozes warmth all over her. 

She breaks apart, reason starting to kick in. Walking backwards, she picks up the mace and heads back to her friends slowly, looking forward to what the rest of the summer would bring. 

At the museum, the others were standing outside, Flash was live-streaming the aftermath, Happy Hogan working to avoid the camera and chatting on the phone. “Hey,” Betty asks, “where’d you go?”

“I wanted to see if I could recover anything from the bus,” MJ lied.

“Could you?” Flash asked turning away from his phone. 

“No,” she answers, “I’m glad they gave us a hotel night here, after everything.” 

“Yeah,” Neds says. “We really didn’t get to see London as much as I would've liked?”

“I’m ready to go home,” Betty sighed, “I wonder where--

“I found your teachers,” Happy says closing his phone, “I’ll get you back to the hotel and the rest of your class. You’re leaving tomorrow morning first thing.”

Flash shrugged, Ned and MJ released a sigh of relief. 

MJ sits to herself on their ride back. Ned and Betty are sitting next to each other, silent voices and silent hands. Flash is on his phone but it’s clear he’s not on Instagram. She sees a text from her mom when she opens her own phone  _ let me know you’re okay, fuck the charges.  _

_ I’m okay  _ , she texts in response, and then turns off her phone. She keeps her eyes closed until the bus stops in front of where they are staying. 

As they receive their room assignments from Mr. Harrington, he outlines the plans for the evening, with strict rules of not leaving the hotel. MJ watches as everyone else nods around her, and takes in a deep breath processing all that’s happened. They saunter off to their rooms, still not sharing, but not as swanky as Prague, and Ned approaches her. He lays a hand on her shoulder and slows his step as he begins to whisper, “I feel it’s important as an FoS we discuss how to not talk about him before he arrives--

“Act surprised when he does arrive,” she responds to him in equally hushed tones, “I doubt anyone’s paying attention to him besides us, anyway,” 

Ned shrugs in response as they roll their bags up the stairs, “I’m just glad we packed his stuff for him.”

“Me, too,” MJ answers, “I left room for books but didn’t really have time to find any,” she concludes as the elevator door closes in front of them. 

She rolls off down the girls’ corridor, the last to close her door in a symphony of doors’ closing. She opens her bag and pulls out a change of clothes, wanting to wash the day off of her. In the shower, she can’t help but cry, the weight of almost dying again too overwhelming. The first time was unexpected, there wasn’t time to process. That there was a first time and this second time was real, was unknown and uncertain and still there had been so many things in her life she didn’t do, as though she hadn’t been back long enough to do much of any of them except confessing her feelings to someone who just so happened to reciprocate them. 

She couldn’t help but think about what it was like for the family she didn’t mean to leave behind to worry if they were ever going to see her again. 

After she gets dressed, she dials the front desk, “Hello, could you connect me with the room of Edwards Leeds?”

“One moment please,” the person responds. 

MJ takes a deep breath; she’s never been one to reach out to people but who else would understand the weight of her experiences in light of what she's learned. 

“Hello?” she hears him say on the other line. 

“Hi,” she says.

“Oh,” Ned says sounding more upbeat, “uh, hey MJ, what’s up?”

“Mind’s whirring and since there’s no other  _ FoS,  _ I figured I’d call you.”

“Oh,” Ned says and she could almost see him nodding in the way that he does, “that makes sense. Betty’s in her room talking to her mom and dad still. I just got off the phone with mine…”

“Yeah,” MJ says, “my family was scared, too…”

“But we made it out alive, right?”

“Yeah, but,” she begins, trying this thing called sharing her feelings, “but it’s really overwhelming. Being on the brink of death because of aliens or people capitalizing off the fear of aliens.”

“I know,” Ned says, “I feel like I wanna learn more to do more, you know, it’s not like the guy in the chair role came easy--

“I figured,” MJ says, “Peter pretty much acts like he can take it on all alone…”

“Yeah,” Ned agrees, “and then he freaks out when he’s gotten in over his head and asks for help and you can’t not help him because people are in danger. He’s gotta get better about that--

“White boys--

“I know, right?” Ned says laughing, “but he’s one of the good ones.”

“Yeah,” she says taking in a deep breath and grabbing the black dahlia necklace, “he is. I dunno how you--

“Give me a minute,” he interrupts, “there’s a knock at the door.”

After a bit, he says, “Oh, hey, Peter.”

She hears Peter mumbling on the other side of the phone but can’t make out what it is. 

“You’re lucky Betty’s not here,” Ned says, “we haven’t figured out what we’re gonna say to people after you join us tomorrow--

Again, more mumbling and Ned tries to interrupt, every so often saying, “Peter,” until by the fourth time, Ned directs his attention to MJ and says, “You kissed Peter?!”

“Yeah,I mean we both knew--and someone just hung up on me,” she says in response to the busy signal instead of Ned’s voice coming from the other end. She considers whether or not she should call the front desk again, she’d need a good reason. “Drop something he left with me off--perfect,” she says to herself as she picks up the phone again.

As soon as the front desk tells her Ned’s room number, she puts a cap on her head wrap--she doesn’t want to explain Black hair care or get looks from (white) people not used to seeing the conditioning process of Black hair. 

Because the first round of clothes she had on are covered with debris and sweat, she looks through her suitcase for something she hadn’t worn, aside from the clothes she’s planning to wear for the return flight. She lingers her hand over his telekinesis shirt but thought it was too soon to wear his clothes to see him. As she picked out another shirt and leggings, she wondered if they’d get to the place she would for a second until she realized what it would mean they’d be doing that she’d have more access to his clothes. 

Once she’s dressed, she puts her suitcase up, she sets her toiletries in the bathroom. She then sets pjs and the clothes for tomorrow out on the far end of the TV stand/table. Her book bag rests on the desk chair, waiting for the time to read and draw she hopes to find later that night. 

By the time she put on her shoes, she hears a knock at the door. “Figures,” she says to herself as she walks to her front door. 

She’s not surprised by the eager face she finds on the other side of the peephole. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am working on integrating the deleted scene into the second to last chapter. I want to know the lead up to it as well as what happened after it. Because I already wrote them falling asleep on each other, I presume there needs to be more fluff in this flight scene :)


	6. Settling In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I guess my rambling is contagious,” Peter says smiling enough to wake up his dimple...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing post-holiday visits and phones has been such a good release and this chapter just emerged.

PETER 

“Hi,” Peter says to her when she opens the door.

“You were able to knock this time,” she says opening it wider and extending her arm to invite him in. 

“Yeah,” he breathes and chuckles, taking in her open suitcase holding his clothes and her clothes and her attempts to slow her heartbeat as he’s walking in. “I thought I should explain, you know, what you heard with Ned--

“You were catching him up on the success of your plan and you freaked out because I called him and he told you to come over here so you could apologize for hanging up on me--

“Kind of,” he answers as leans against a sliver of wall between the closet door and the front door, “he told me you sounded worried and that I should probably see how you’re doing because of how you learned about, you know…”

She nods, looking around the room, putting her hand on her head. “This made more sense walking towards you than you coming here,” she says smoothing her hand against her cap. 

“Were you going to sleep or?”

“No,” she says walking deeper into the room, “just winding down after a really intense day.”

He takes in the sight of the room. It’s still clean, the bed barely touched, she has clothes out, presumably for their flight. Her suitcase is right outside the closet doors and the bathroom light’s still on. “Today was a lot,” he begins to say, 

She nods in response and he waits a moment to see if she’ll say more.

He wants to be inviting and encouraging, let her know he’ll tell her whatever she needs, so he says, “and you can ask all the questions you want. Ned was really funny when he found out and he asked about superpowers and strength and the webs and it was really annoying but really funny but that was Ned, who’s you know, Ned, and,” he takes a breath because he could sense his own nervousness may be affecting picking up on clues her silence may be dishing. 

When she says nothing, holding that gaze she holds when she’s waiting for something more but not really saying why she’s waiting, he says, “and, you know, we’re, you know...so any questions, really, I’ll tell you anything because we’re more than, you know me and Ned, more than--

“More than bro’s,” she says in her deadpan voice that would have thrown her off if she didn’t wiggle her eyebrows or lift the corner of her mouth into a smile. “Dork.”

“Yeah,” he sighs, walking closer to her, “definitely not bro’s.”

When he’s close enough, she leans her forehead onto his and lets him take her hands, waffling them into his and it’s better than kissing. He doesn’t know how this kind of closeness where their hands are wrapped around each other and they’re breathing the same air and their hearts are trying to keep time with each other could be so much better than the kiss by the bridge. 

  
  


MJ 

After a few beats of sharing air and getting used to the other’s warmth, she leads him to sit on the bed next to her and asks, “How’s Aunt May doing?”

“She’s okay, she’s glad, you know I’m not hurt and so excited that you know, we kissed, and she’ll be there to pick me up tomorrow when we land.” 

“You told her?” MJ asked turning to his face. “About the kiss--I mean me?”

He nods, his eyes not meeting hers, “she helped me find a store that sold black dahlia necklaces. She also talked to me about how to take things slow, spend time and see how you reacted to me before, you know, because I don’t know what I’m doing...”

“Me either,” she admits looking down at her shoes, “I mean I botched up your first attempt to tell me, didn’t I?”

“When you said you knew I was Spider-Man, I  _ freaked out  _ I thought,  _ oh, no  _ !” 

“The superpowers aren’t that appealing,” she says with a shrug, “everyone has cool toys and tech nowadays.”

“I know, I mean it’s not like I’m Asgardian or like I was born a mutant, and I didn’t choose this, you know, it was that visit to Oscorp and one of their genetically altered spiders that bit me that…

MJ nods in agreement, and wonders if she should admit that she’s not interested in how it happened or what it produced. He seems to be stuck there, on the whole superpower thing, which is adorable, adorkable, really. “I remember that trip, dork” she says nudging his shoulder with hers, “I liked you before then.”

She watches him turn beat red and smooth his hands on his jeans. He turns his head towards her and in response to her small smile, his shoulders melt, his eyebrows relax, and he sighs.  _ He saved the world twice over and  _ ** _she _ ** _ had the power to make him nervous and comfortable all at once,  _ she thought to herself,  _ wow.  _

“Oh,” was all he could muster saying. 

“Yeah,” she said, “and now you’re  _ you… _ ”

“I’m still the same guy, MJ,” he offers.

“A guy who now has the power to fight aliens and save the world instead of on top of rooting for the little guy,a loser who can crawl on ceilings and create web slingers in our science lab, and swing people from building to building on those webs, ” MJ thinks out loud, “no pressure around dating  that  guy.” 

She covers her mouth, and purses her lips, standing up to sit at the desk chair. His nervousness and her added confession and the bed are just too nerve-wracking. She needs space.

He stood up after her and said, “No, I’m not--I wasn’t--I wouldn’t, you know, because I’ve never and we just kissed and there’s so much to talk about like everything you saw and how you felt--Aunt May said I should give you the space to talk about it because it’s a lot to process for someone who cares about me and maybe wants to be with me and, gosh, MJ I would never expect you to do anything you didn’t wanna do and I’m just so nervous because I can talk to you and you know and you like me not because I’m Spider-Man and that’s just so great, MJ, that’s just enough, plenty because you’re so smart and funny and--

MJ rolls her chair forward and reaches for his hand, “that’s not the pressure I was talking about Peter,” she says, “I mean I talk about how the world needs change, how governments can’t be trusted, and why the change needs to happen and you’re someone  **doing ** something. It’s just humbling is all.”

“Oh,” he says returning to sit on the bed, this time, on the corner, with a foot of distance between them, “I just know Mr. Stark had a bad boy reputation before Misses Stark and the guys used to talk about how hard it was to be anyone’s boyfriend and Hawkeye had a family he lost and got back after the blip but--

“Those are grown men, Peter,” MJ interjects, “their problems with dating have little to do with their superhero status and more to do with how informed they keep the people they are dating or how much they consider them when they make decisions. Privilege means responsibility; maintaining relationships means accountability and, knowing Aunt May, that’s what she probably meant about talking to me. We’re the same people we were two days ago, dork,” she says taking in a deep breath, “just a lot less secrets between us.” 

“I guess my rambling is contagious,” Peter says with a smile, “but yeah Aunt May said I have to talk to you like I talk to her plus how I talk to Ned, like it’s going to be different for you than it was for Ned  _ and  _ her because you will care about me differently and want or need different things if you decide to be my girlfriend--

MJ nods and blinks because as insightful as Aunt May was she’s also reading her like a book a little too well. “Yup,” is all she can muster saying, “this is more talking than I expected either of us to do today because, you know, we were being attacked by drones and by an Iron Man obsessed wanna be.”

“We don’t have to talk anymore if you don’t want to, ” he offers waffling her hand. 

“I know,” she answers leaning back in her chair, “I was hoping Ned could be a buffer at first, because it’s not just liking you or...or, getting used to you being Spider-Man, it’s all that and being aware of how you’re on call to save the world from global dangers--and we should. We should talk.” 

“Oh, good, yeah” Peter says nodding his head in that way he does when he’s excited, “But I told Happy that he could tell Nick Fury to wait till I called him; they should have left me alone when I asked--

“Peter!” 

“I’m in high school, I should be doing high school things like worrying about whether or not the girl who likes me wants to be my girlfriend even though I’m clumsy and really busy taking care of people and my line of work keeps putting me in danger--”

“Yes,” she says interrupting his train of thought.

“Yes to me being in high school or being put in danger a lot or yes to wanting to be my girlfriend?”

MJ just nods, smiles and rolls her eyes. 

Peter 

“Yes to all three,” he asks to confirm.

“Dork,” she says kissing her forehead and getting up to turn on the coffee machine. But she doesn’t put any coffee in it, “I’m thirsty and I don’t wanna see people,” she says as if to explain her choice. 

“Me either,” he says, leaning back so he can swing his feet off the bed.

“You know,” she says as she unwraps the mugs they left in the room, “Ned’s always gonna be your guy in the chair. I’ll be in the  _ other  _ chair, right next to him, but he’s the guy in the chair.”

“Okay--

“I’m not good at getting close to people,” she explains, “and I overrationalize to protect myself and you need someone who does some of that and some of you with the heart on the sleeve and the feelings--

“I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve,” he whines, “I’m just--

“A very considerate and sensitive person who will go above and beyond to help others because he can and who cries at puppy commercials and at each death in  _ Star Wars  _ movies and probably,  _ Harry Potter  _ ones too--

“Oh,” he says watching her unwrap the tea bags, “you’re kind too.”

“But I’m subtle,” she says as she pours the water over her bag, “no one really gets to see it and I want to share more of that,” she says, “with you. So Ned’s the guy in the chair. And I’m in the other chair. ”

“Makes sense,” he says as she returns to her chair in the desk. He studies her for a minute, as she takes in her tea. 

“You have that look, Parker.”

“What look?”

“The look you had when you thought I caught you buying my necklace,” she says before taking another sip. “We need to think about what we’re gonna tell Mister Dell and Mister Harrington.”

“Yeah,” he says, “Ned’s really good at that stuff.”

“Guy in the chair, obviously,” MJ says with a shrug. 

“Should we tell ‘im now?” Peter asks, “see if he’s with Betty and try to figure out a way to get her out of the room--

“Just so we’re clear,” she begins walking over to her suitcase, “you n me will  _ not  _ be like that--all lovey-dovey, texting each other when we’re next to each other and wearing matching clothes, ew!”

“Aww,” Peter says, “I’m happy for Ned, they’re so cute together.”

“I’m happy for him to but they’re not cute,” she says laughing and plopping her suitcase onto the bed. “Did you feel that way before  _ we  _ kissed.”

“No,” he thinks out loud watching her confused about what she was doing, “but that’s because I was too busy thinking about how to tell you with everything that ruined my plan--

“That was the spoon thing that I said was like a grandmother, right?” she asks flipping it open, smiling, “I mean, that’s what you and Ned were talking about--”

“Yeah,” Peter admits looking at his telekinesis shirt and blue hoodie. “You know,” he said as she stretched up her back, “You split my clothes?”

“Yeah,” she says taking out his shirt, hoodie and a pair of his jeans, “he had gotten gifts for his family and Betty and I had room…”

“I could’ve also helped you pick that up,” he says, “I mean, it would’ve been easy for me.”

“Me, too, which is why I did,” she said with a closed-mouth grin.

“As a courtesy not because you couldn’t--

“I know,” MJ says rubbing her head, “I’ll let you carry things when I need you, loser.” 

She kisses him on his forehead and tussles his hair. 

“Okay,” he says with a smile leaning back on the bed. “But I’m hungry.”

“Mister. Harrington said we couldn’t leave the hotel without his permission and that we couldn’t go far if we did--

“I wasn’t here for that,” Peter interrupts standing up, “I can go get food easy and be back before anyone knows--

“No,” MJ says pulling her phone out, “you’re not leaving me again. We’ll just see what’s close by--I’m surprised that Mister Harrington hasn’t--

“Think again,” Peter says grabbing his clothes and heading to hide in the bathroom. 

Within seconds, Mr. Harrington is knocking on her door, “We’re gonna order pizza and eat together in the lobby, any requests?” 

“Make sure there’s one without any meat on it,” MJ says and then opens the door, “thank you, Mister Harrington.”

“Of course, MJ,” he answers, “we’re telling your parents we will feed you and keep you inside for the remainder of the trip. We want to make sure we get you all home safely and well fed.”

“That’s so thoughtful, Mister Harrington, I know everyone’s families must be grateful, no one planned for any of this,” MJ says. 

_ Why is she keeping him at the door?  _ Peter thinks to himself,  _ does she  _ ** _want _ ** _ me to get caught?  _

“Of course,” Mr. Harrington says, “I have a couple of your classmates to check in on and then join us in the lobby in about an hour.”

“Sounds good, Mister Harrington, see you then,” MJ says before closing the door. 

As soon as Peter could hear Mister Harrington’s steps grow more faint, he stepped out of the bathroom to find MJ reading a book.

“Why’d you go and do that for?”

“So we could create a window of opportunity for you to join us,” MJ answers, “because I’m pretty sure he  _ didn’t  _ know to talk to May yet--and that May told you to check in with him first…”

“Yeah, but she knows I’m here. I got off the phone right when I arrived at the lobby. Happy let me call ‘er from his phone.”

“So wouldn’t be weird that you’re here and haven't checked in with the teachers yet? I mean,” she adds sitting at the desk chair, “she  _ expects them to keep tabs on you. _ ”

“Yeah,” he answers pursing his lips. 

“So it may be a good idea to let them know what May already knows and that they’re responsible for you…”

“Oh,” he answered, “yeah, good thinking. I should go see what Ned’s up to--

“Shouldn’t you make sure Mister Dell and Mister Harrington are  _ not  _ in the halls.”

“I can stay a little longer,” Peter says plopping himself on the bed. 

“Good,” MJ said returning to her book, “you can take a nap. I’ll wake you when the pizza’s here.”

"You're awesome, MJ,” he says kicking off his shoes, “thanks," 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thinking through the social awkwardness of dating and titles and how uncomfortable teenagers who do have feelings for each other can be around touch was what I was going for, let me know what you think.


	7. Soft Landing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Aww, Ned,” Peter says reaching his arm over his shoulder. “I love you, too, man.”  
“Thanks, Peter,” Ned responds finishing the hug, “but I think you should talk to MJ about what happened yesterday.”  
“How do you know I didn’t?” Peter asks as their bro hug breaks apart.  
“Because I know you,” Ned answers walking back to the bed, “the first to help someone and the last to ask for it.”  
“Ned--”  
“Aunt May knows it. I know it, and you can’t do that with MJ,” Ned observes, “before the blip she didn’t get close to anyone. And she chose us, Peter…She likes you..”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ned is an underrated character, I feel. I want his bromance with Peter to factor into what Peter needed to think about when it came to seeing MJ as someone who'd be affected by his choices. It was important to have Ned's insights and Peter's reflection on them to be a catalyst for how Parker reached out to MJ, aware that his peers' fears and anxieties about his choices come from a different place than parents' and guardians.  
So much of his good fortune stems from the people in the chair or waiting at home. I wanted them to tell him. Please enjoy!! :)

MJ 

As she finished  _ How to Talk less Stupid about Race,  _ Mister Dell began his rounds of door knocking for pizza. “Peter,” she coos approaching his form curled on the bed, “time to get up for food.”

He turned in place, taking in a deep breath. 

She then tries coaxing him with a hand on his shoulder but still, no response. She calls Ned’s room for reinforcements. “Five more minutes, May,” was all they could get out of him. 

“What are we gonna do, Leeds?”

“We?” he asks waving his pointer between the both of them. 

“Mister Harrington has to know he’s here and we can’t just say he’s in my room--”

Ned’s brows cross as he thinks. “Once everyone’s downstairs,” he begins, “I’ll ask Betty to cover for me and say that he fell asleep in here because you two are dating now and that we don’t want anyone to get in trouble.”

“You two are  **really ** good at lying--”

“This one’s not a lie,” Ned said rolling the chair to Peter, “Peter staying with family was. It’s important to keep track of which is which because, sometimes, there are truths that are told to cover up lies and make sure everything gets back to normal.” 

“You know,” she says as helping him put Peter in the seat, “still doesn’t mean you’re not good at lying, dork.”

“Yeah,” Ned chuckles, “I came up with Spider Monkey.”

She shakes her head as they get him in a seated position in the chair as normal-looking as possible. MJ’s never seen a passed out Peter. She’s seen a dozing Peter, but not a “passed out from saving a handful of cities over his summer vacation trip” Peter. 

Sitting on the bed next to his chair, she takes his hand in hers, smoothing a curl from his forehead. Seeing him so tired hurt, not the sad or pity hurt, the concerned and invested in his well being hurt. She was admittedly grateful that they weren’t able to wake him after everything he’d been through over the past few days.

As Ned walked to plop the door open, she watched as his chest expanded and released air, the sight of it a lullaby soothing her until he said the coast was clear and was ready for her to bring Peter to him. 

They rolled him down the empty hallway and turned towards Ned’s room’s hallway. Ned opened his room, with a perfect view of the building across the way, they laid him in the bed. While Ned was ready to go, MJ suggested, “we should leave a note in case he wakes up confused.”

“Right,” Ned says, “Mysterio’s illusion tech would give anyone nightmares.”

“Then we should tell him something only the two of us would know--

“The grandmother spoons,” she thought out loud, “we were just talking about it.”

Ned chuckled, “Perfect! I’ll write it.” 

As he did, MJ smoothed her hand against Peter’s forehead, taking in his restful posture and hoping he wouldn’t succumb to the stress of the week’s events. 

She followed Ned out of the room and on the way to the elevator, they crafted their story about how Peter had come to them first, passed out and they couldn’t wake him up to check in on him. Ned would bring Mr. Harrington up to him to confirm he was there. 

MJ sat and caught up with others as Ned followed through on his role in the plans. MJ did her best to engage with the other half of the class’s story about where they ended up and how relieved they were to arrive at the hotel. 

“I wonder why Peter would join us considering all our bad luck over the trip,” Brad says unsettling MJ. She didn’t want to bring attention to herself, especially considering how much time she’d already spent with him over the trip. If she spoke what went unnoticed would be noticed. 

“Probably because she figured nothing worse could happen than already has,” Betty answers, “I mean between Night Monkey and Spider-Man we were pretty well taken care of, you know?”

“Like I said,” Flash begins in between bites of pizza, “Spider-Man can better all of ‘em.”

“Isn’t that strange, though,” Brad continues, “that they’re always where  _ we  _ are…”

MJ looks around, trying to see if anyone will answer, “I mean, it’s like Betty said, what matters is that we’re safe, right?”

“Exactly,” Betty says, “I mean I would presume that the Avengers team has scouts in places and just calls up the right superheroes to come address the call, and given that Spider-Man was part of the crew that defeated Thanos, they probably thought he was good enough.” 

MJ shrugs as they continue to compare Mysterio to Spider-Man and others, grateful that Betty had been the one to interject. 

The conversation eventually trails off to the rest of their summer plans--Flash will continue to travel, Betty’s taking SAT prep courses, with a scattering of others, like MJ, returning to summer jobs. Luckily for MJ, she was working at a cafe at a community arts center so she didn’t mind talking about work. It was awkward when she worked the fryer at a fast food place down the street from where she lived, because it clearly marked her as a poorer other. 

Ned returned around this time, talking about working in the family restaurant and receiving his grandmother in a couple of weeks. MJ appreciated how quickly they fell into beat with each other. She held her own for another hour until the peopling had gotten too exhausting. By the time she decided to leave, the pizza and soda were practically gone.

As she got up, she makes a point to pass Ned and squeeze his shoulder. 

He meets her by the elevator, “I asked Mister Harrington to bring a pizza up for Peter, because I knew he might get hungry. I gave him my other room key to do it.”

“Good thinking,” MJ says as the elevator opens. “Hopefully he left the other key in there.”

“Most likely,” Ned answers, “I said Peter may want to check in with him when he wakes up, apologize for sleeping. I laid it on thick about Peter fighting hard to do the right thing.”

MJ nods, hoping Peter had been getting good sleep. 

“I’ll see you two on the plane, Leeds,” she says as they part ways. 

“G’night, MJ.”

On walking into her room, she takes in the scene, her suitcase to the side, her book bag on the desk next to the flat screen tv. The room was larger than what she had at home. She definitely appreciate the nights she didn’t have to share her bathroom. And she loved how firm the beds were. The Prague hotel was more than she ever imagined she’d have access to given the type of life she’d plan on living. 

She took off her cap and the wrap, contemplating on taking another shower or leaving it till the morning. It’d been a long day and she was glad it was over. She was looking forward to going to sleep and going home. 

Peter 

He awoke to find Ned setting boxes next to the TV. To his right lay a key in a note. He read the note.  _ The spoon collecting conversation we had, MJ figured it out and is glad it worked out the way it did. Hopefully you slept well. And I enjoyed building the death star with you the second time. - Ned  _

“Thanks for the note, Ned,” Peter says sitting up, “and for the pizza.”

“You’re welcome,” Ned answers, “Mister Harrington is expecting you to check in with either Mister Dell who’s downstairs with everyone else, or with him in his room.” 

“What’s his room number?”

“Two O eight, I think, just call the front desk and ask.”

“I’ll walk down the hall and make sure he’s awake before I go downstairs and check in with Mister Dell, I wouldn’t want to wake him up.”

“Sounds good,” Ned says, “I already ate so this pizza is all yours.”

“Thanks, man,” Peter responds as they do their handshake, “you’re the best.”

“Guy in the chair,” Ned says, “anytime.”

After eating three slices of pizza to hold him over, Peter walks down towards room 208 searching for the sound of a television and/or Mister Harrington. On hearing his laughter accompanied by television, Peter knocks on his door. “Mister Harrington, it’s Peter Parker.” 

“Oh Peter,” Mister Harrington says as he opens the door, “good morning--well, good evening, anyway.”

“Thanks so much for letting me rejoin the trip--

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, “I called your Aunt May and she explained she trusted that you’d be safest on a plane with us and was able to find a ticket for you on our flight, so there wasn’t much to do on my end.”

“Great,” Peter answers taking a couple steps back, “thanks again.”

“Check out’s at eleven and I assume you’ll be staying with Edwards Leeds. Lights out at,” he takes a look at his watch, “well in thirty minutes--time flies!”

“It does Mister Harrington,” Peter says with his best courteous smile, “I will be sure to be in bed by then.”

“Great,” Mr. Harrington says, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, Mister Harrington,” Peter says as Mr. Harrington closes the door and he turns towards Ned’s room.

On arriving there, he knocks before entering the key. Once Ned says, “come in,” Peter enters. 

“Just checked in with Mister Harrington, and all is good. Thanks for tonight, I was really tired.”

“I still don’t know how I’m still up between the fake elemental, the drones in the museum and working with MJ around sneaking you in here.”

“You guys were awesome, I dunno how I didn’t wake up. Those illusions were wicked scary, I had to rely on my sixth sense to help me. Oh, and Happy’s dating my Aunt May.”

“He told us,” Ned admits, “he told us he was in love with her--”

“In love with her!?”

“Oh yeah,”Ned says nodding, “like if that works out that may out you to a few of us more than our clumsy conversations--

“Ned?”

“I mean he was all sappy about it--

“Yeah,” Peter sighs as he throws himself on the other side of the bed from Ned, “I mean he called my sixth sense the Peter tingle, even after I told May I hated that name for it.”

“Peter tingle, aww, Pete!” Ned begins to laugh. 

“I KNOW! I hate that name,” Peter chuckles in response. 

“Maybe the spidey sense makes more sense because, you know, Spider-Man--

“Exactly,” Peter says, “tingle sounds too much like tinkle...”

Ned laughs again, “tinkle!” 

As the laughter dies down, Peter asks, “why aren’t you with Betty? You two spent the entire vacation finishing each other’s sentences and always together.”

“Sometimes,” Ned begins, “it’s important to spend time apart, to make room for who you were before you were part of something bigger, to hold on to the core of who you are and not get lost in another person.”

“Fair point.”

“Still,” Ned considers throwing himself on his bed, “why aren’t you with MJ right now?”

“Because she’s sleeping--

“How do you know that?”

“Because it’s late.”

“You’ve never been on the other side of learning you’re Spider-Man and watching you take on monsters.” 

“It’s not like I would go into a battle I couldn’t--

“How’d it go with Thanos the first time, Peter?” Ned asks adjusting his side of the bed pillows behind his back. 

“Shut up,” Peter said crossing his arms, “that’s because he had all the infinity stones--

“You had me run interference while you rain towards the donut spaceship without knowing what you were walking into--and without the Iron Spider!”

“Mr. Stark was headed towards it and I need to help--

“ _ Exactly  _ , Peter,” Ned interjects standing up, “that was nerve-wracking. And I didn’t have anyone to talk about it with. Sitting there on the bus wondering if I’d ever see my best friend again. At least with MJ knowing,” he admits crossing his arms, “I’ll have someone to talk to, I won’t be worrying alone.”

“I’m so sorry, Ned,” Peter says standing and grabbing another slice of pizza, “I didn’t know…”

“Because you have to chase the bad guys,” Ned says grabbing a slice of the same pizza, “of course I didn’t tell you. You know, when I was in the museum with MJ and the others, I realized how little I get to do when stuff goes down, how little I’ve done. I don’t want that to be my truth anymore, Pete, and being, for now, your guy in the chair helps me feel like I’m doing something. Being the guy in the chair sometimes helps me feel like I do enough, like I can help my friend and help my community at least that much.”

“Aww, Ned,” Peter says reaching his arm over his shoulder. “I love you, too, man.”

“Thanks, Peter,” Ned responds finishing the hug, “but I think you should talk to MJ about how she feels about seeing you do what you do and go through what you went through--did you talk to her about Mysterio’s allusions in Berlin?.”

“How do you know I didn’t?” Peter asks as their bro hug breaks apart. 

“Because I know you,” Ned answers walking back to the bed, “the first to help someone and the last to ask for it.”

“Ned--”

“Aunt May knows it. I know it, and you can’t do that with MJ,” Ned observes, “before the blip she didn’t get close to anyone. And she chose us, Peter…She chose you.”

Peter takes a deep breath, grabs his key, “Thanks, Ned.”

“Anytime.”

MJ 

MJ decides to rinse the conditioner out of her hair and put on the same outfit she had on as her pjs. She’ll be able to sleep in a little more and her hair would be less victim to London’s humidity in drying overnight in a bantu knot. On getting out of the shower and getting dressed, she switches Fleming’s book for an older book she found at a library sale. She opens up  _ But Some of us are Brave,  _ taking in the smell of older books to be interrupted by a knock at the door. On looking through the peephole, she finds Peter looking from side to side. She opens the door, “you know you could have sent a text or called to warn me,” she says as she lets him in. 

“I lost my phone in Berlin,” Peter admits.

“Inevitable,” MJ says shrugging, “they’re pretty obnoxious.”

“What are you reading?”

“I finished  _ How to be less Stupid about Race,  _ which you saw me reading when you fell asleep,” she begins, “and now I’m reading  _ But Some of us Are Brave  _ which is an anthology of 1980s Black feminist writers.”

“Cool,” Peter says sitting on her bed.”You go through books like I go through book bags.” 

She takes him in, doing that thing where he’s searching his emotions and memories for what to say. She’ll have to figure how long she’d wait before he sat on her real bed, or even bring him home. She already knows May because of those times she did work on their project at his house. 

“Talk to me, Parker,” she offers sitting at her desk chair, “what’s on your mind?”

“You know,” he begins, “I don’t really sit with how scared my choices make people. And while we talked about Aunt May before, Ned told me what it’s like for him, and I realized I don’t know what these past few days were like for you. Because, you know, you  _ really  _ like me and had to see me flip around buildings, keep ferris wheels together and combat illusion cloaked drones.”

MJ swallows. He wants her to be vulnerable. He wants to know how she  _ feels  _ about his choices. She doesn’t know where to begin. She was pretty impressed with the rules they set earlier that night. He was going to think about how his choices would affect her; she would be a person in the other chair so Ned remained the guy in the chair. It wasn’t a sexist thing, it was a ‘bro’s are important thing.’ Those were good rules. Sensible rules. She could sit with her worry and fear without thinking about it because there were bigger things to worry about. There were always bigger things. 

And in the midst of worrying about those things, he was worrying about her. 

“You were going to expose Mysterio,” she rationalizes, “because he was putting people in danger capitalizing off of the global trauma the blip had been for the world over.  _ And,”  _ she continues to say reaching behind the wall she keeps around her heart. And that effort takes some strength out of her voice, and so she finds she can’t help but whisper, “I didn’t know if I’d see you again, if I’d have gotten to tell you how I really felt--feel--about you.” 

He reaches his hand out, pulling her chair closer to him and then lays his hand on her knee. 

.Watching his hand smooth the material of her leggings, she clears her throat and adds, “Aside from delaying what I delayed, I, like Leeds, worried.”

Peter leans towards her, hands folded and says, “I was afraid too,” he admits, “I felt it was my fault for not seeing through it sooner or recognizing something was up when my web shooter didn’t cling to the ferris wheel at the first attempt--I didn’t like leaving you in the theater not knowing how much I  _ didn’t  _ want to leave you.”

She lays her hand on his and softens a little more. 

“Today wasn’t easier,” she continues taking in a deep breath, “because I knew Mysterio knew that we knew because of how close our bus was to the newest elementals’ attack and given how the drones followed us to the museum,” folding her hands into his, she says, “It wasn’t your fault, but it happened because we were close to you. I took the time between leaving you at the bridge, arriving at the hotel and having you come to my door to let that sink in. I was really scared about what could have happened to us, and terrified about what happened to you, and then relieved it all ended but still scared I’d never, we’d never...”

Peter blinked slowly, and she could see his eyes were watering, “Me, too, I’m afraid,” he says above a whisper, swallowing the tremble in his voice, squeezing the hand waffled in his, unable to contain a tear, “putting people I care about in danger--”

“I know,” she says leaning in towards him as he uses his other hand to wipe one of the tears she couldn’t keep from falling, “but that’s not your call,” and then she continues with a sniffle, “not all the time anyway.”

“In the illusion tech he used when I arrived in Berlin, he had a simulation where he dropped you from the Eiffel Tower.”

“I was in the simulation?”

“And Iron Man,” Peter continued, “he used all the fears I shared with him between battles to manipulate me.” 

“That’s scary, Peter,” she says reaching out for his other hand. 

“Not as scary as it  _ actually  _ happening,” he admits, “or as scary as thinking about how much I am asking of you.”

“What do you think you’re asking of me, Parker?” she asks leaning back, parting her hands from his. 

“Keep secrets,” he says folding waffling his hands together, “lie, watch me walk in the face of danger and be okay with it--

“I rather lie for someone doing the right thing than be honest because of someone who isn’t,” she says setting a hand on top of both of his. 

“I agree,” he says taking in a deep breath. “Thanks for saying that.”

He stands up and brings her with him. He plants a soft kiss on her lips, then wraps his arms around her. She feels him breathe her in and she smooths her hand against his wavy brown hair. 

“I’m glad you’re safe,” she whispers right next to his ear. 

“MJ,” he says into the nape of her neck, blinking wetness onto her skin, “MJ, I--

“You can stay here with me,” she says, leading him to the bed, “if you want.” Sitting him down on the far side of the bed, she walks to grab her book and says, “I know Mister Harrington and Mister Dell should be pretty passed out at this point.”

“They are,” Peter said taking off his shoes, “I checked.”

“Oh,” MJ says swallowing hard and grabbing her book, “good.”

“You smell nice,” he thinks out loud as she takes the side of the bed where he was sitting. 

“Showers do that,” she says shaking her head, “hey, Parker you can turn on the TV if you want.”

“Can I take a shower?” He asks, “I just realize I haven’t taken one--

“Sure,” she says swallowing hard and hiding behind her book, “pretty sure Ned put a set of PJ’s in my bag. I think he gave me the clean clothes on purpose.”

Peter chuckles and rubs his nose with the back of his hand, “Guy in the chair.”

“Dork!” she chuckles throwing a pillow at him. 

“I’ll be right back,” he says walking towards the bathroom.

“I’ll be here,” she said, shaking her head, “reading.” 

It takes her a while to find her focus, because there’s a boy she’s crazy about taking a shower in the other room and they’ve done a lot of feelings today. When she can’t get into her book, thinking about the boy, she switches it for her sketchpad, and tries to fill in the Peter sleeping sketch details she can by memory. 

Peter

As he walks out, wearing a robe and his sleeping pants, he finds MJ heavily concentrating on a sketch instead of her book. He takes in a deep breath, struggling as to whether or not he should keep on the robe or grab a t-shirt because he doesn’t want to scare her with his bruises. The cuts on his hands and arms are pretty healed, his hands are find, but his arms are still pretty banged up. 

“What are you drawing,” he asks leaving on the robe and plopping himself on his side of the bed. 

She pulls the sketchpad to her person, “Something I started earlier today. It’s not done.”

“Can I see it when you are?” he asks. 

She lifts her head up and back, narrows her eyes at him, “Maybe.”

He shrugs and rests his head on the headboard, “K.”

“I’mna put it away now,” she says, “I don’t want you watching me draw,” adding as she bends over her book bag, “it’d be too weird.”

She grabs the pillow she threw at him earlier and throws it to him so he has another to rest on. “You were in there a while,” she says as she returns to her place.

“In the rush to get to Happy and then to get here,” he begins while putting his hands in his robe’s pockets, “I forget how messy Spider-Manning can get and the water pressure felt  _ nice, _ ” 

“Pretty banged up, huh?” she asks pulling on a corner of the robe sleeve.

“I don’t have any long sleeve shirts and I don’t wanna sleep in my hoodie and I don’t wanna scare you because it’s pretty bad, not like Prague, where you know, there was less flying as I was fighting a fake creature instead of hundreds of real drones.”

“I can’t promise I won’t freak out and get all mushy and concerned about your bruises, loser,” she says with a shrug, “your bloody lip, tattered suit and limp had me in all the sad worried feels earlier. And then, after that whole admitting I was scared of not seeing you again,” she says crossing her arms, “I’d be a mess and my reputation for being cold would be ruined.”

“Your secret is safe with me, MJ,” he says resting a hand on hers, “I won’t tell anyone how sweet and gentle you are.”

“Good,” she says resting her head on his shoulders. 

He rests his head on her head, taking in how they might not have had Paris, but London was turning out pretty great. She was leaning her head on him and he was resting his on hers and they could be quiet and still and together and it wasn’t a big deal. But it was the biggest deal All those months of, well, getting to the place where he realized the way he laughed at her jokes and stared at her and helped her after practice and insisted on working with her, hanging out after their project was long done and unintentionally memorizing her reactions to things so well that he couldn’t wait to be near her, and then the way he wanted her to look at him but didn’t want to catch her looking at him and she was so great and there she was, leaning on him and letting him hold her hand. 

“Stop thinking so much, dork,” she says snuggling closer to him. 

“What? No, I’m okay,” he says looking down at her head on his shoulder, “just trying to get used to this.”

“Used to what?” she asks drawing circles on his hand. 

“The fact that we really like each other and can sit next to each other and not get all nervous like we can’t talk to each other because we don’t know what the other one’s thinking because we like each other so it’s not that big of a deal because we like each other and we’re like dating so…”

“Parker?”

“Yeah, MJ?”

“Shut up,” and with that ,she dove in to kiss him on the lips. 

This time there was more tongue, mouths slightly more open.Her hand played with the hairs curling at the bottom of his head. He pulls her up against him until the closeness of their bodies raised more than their temperatures. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,” he kept repeating as their mouths parted but forehead stayed pressed together. “I didn’t mean--

“You weren’t the only one, Parker,” she interjects feeling the heat rise up to her face. 

When she turns to face him, his face was visibly red and his eyes were wide. He was embarrassed because he was caught being aroused. She’d have to get used to that, knowing she could have that effect on a boy, a boy who liked her as much as she liked him. “We should probably have a proper date before any of that...

“Yeah.” he breathes.

“But stay,” she whispers, “tonight,” she continues clearing her throat, not knowing the effect of his embarrassment. This new terrain as hoped for as it had been, feels as scary as the months of not knowing if he could ever, if he would ever…”You can put on a shirt and then the robe so I won’t freak out and, I mean, if you want to stay--.”

“I want to,” he interrupts her, pressing his forehead against hers, “I just--you’re amazing, MJ.”

“I’m in good company,” she whispers as she gives a peck to the tip of his nose.”And I’m sleepy.” 

“Okay,” he says unfolding his hands from hers as she rests his head on her lap. He plays with a couple of the loose curls by her ear and she hums, “Hmm,” as she closes her eyes. 

  
  


Peter

In the morning, he wakes up with her wrapped in his arms. He remembered her closing her book as he kept asking questions about it. He remembers their argument about what she was missing in not seeing  _ Star Wars,  _ and they talked about their favorite avengers and the male-centeredness of who counted, which then led to them debating on whether or not Peter was an avenger because he never signed anything but they always called him into battle. 

There was a little more kissing after that and then she said she was sleepy, turning off all the lights, which let him see her better, softer. He put on a t-shirt then the robe over it until he was sure she was asleep or that her eyes were closed, then he got into bed with her turning towards him, resting her head on his shoulder and her arm across his middle. They must have wrapped around each other in their spooning position as they slept. 

Full of so much warmth, he presses his nose deeper into her neck and her back closer against his heart.  _ God ,she smells so good _ .

“Hey loser,” she says, pulling his arms more tightly around her. 

“Your loser,” he whispers in her ear. 

“Mmhmm,” she says.

“G’morning,” he says kissing her behind her ear. 

“G’morning,” she responds, taking in a deep breath, “you’re gonna have to go soon, Parker,” she says without moving.

“No!” He whines nuzzling her. 

“Yeah,” she says yawning and breaking their embrace, “unfortunately. But we can sit on the plane together later.”

“I’ll see you in a bit then,” he says sitting up and running his fingers through his hair. 

“Later, loser,” she says as he walks backwards to the door. . 

He arrives at Ned’s room with a knock. Peter jumps in and then gets ready with the clothes MJ had given him the day before. He and Ned meet the others in the lobby with plenty of time to check out.  _ The joy of nothing to pack,  _ Peter thinks to himself, and he can’t stop smiling. 

On the ride to the airport, he’s sandwiched between Flash and Brad who are exchanging travel tips around him in ways that make his eyes roll. Glimpses of MJ checking in on him though are enough of a distraction from the two snobs on the trip. 

He reunites with MJ at customs who, thankfully, saved his headphone splitter and his headphones, so they’re listening to music as they wait in line to confirm their passports and the like and he’s pretty much attached to MJ for the rest of the trip, although very different from the texting next to each other and wearing matching clothes thing that Ned and Betty have going on that afternoon with matching Navy white pin-striped shirts. 

MJ

MJ pulls out her sketchpad to a new sheet. Although they’re sitting next to each other as they wait for their plane, they’re not leaning into each other like Ned and Betty, who are gushing over their shared pictures and playfully debating which ones to post on social media once they get to the states. 

Peter pulls EDITH out of her bag, slightly brushing her leg. When he sits upright she pushes her knee against him and smiles when his ears get red. Flirty nervous Peter’s going to be fun to draw, she thinks to herself. _ I’ll have to watch him sleeping again to finish the sketch,  _ she thinks to herself. Teasing him can reach new heights of discomfort and she’s going to enjoy watching him navigate getting used to her alternate forms of attention. 

“Weather’s looking good in New York,” Peter begins, “ so it’s no expected delays on our flight.”

“Word,” she says as she begins to draw lines, “I hope I at least have time to draw the Ned and Betty crisis.”

“Crisis?” Peter asks. 

“Oh, yeah,” MJ says looking up from her sketchpad, “I’d be surprised if they make it through the summer. She’s too clean cut and he’s too laid back.”

“No,” Peter hisses, “they’re so cute together!”

“ _ We  _ are,” MJ says, “they’re adorable, endearing, and a sweet that’s cavity inducing. The dentist of reality and time will eventually cure that away. But they’ll make their way back together,” she predicts, “they balance each other out.”

Peter chuckles to control the laughter. “You think we’re cute.”

“Don’t tell anyone,” she says poking him with her pencil, “dork.”

“Your dork,” he whispers in her ear. 

She can’t help but smile at that, but she keeps her eyes on her sketch, trying to focus on the tense creases and angles that are emerging around the other couple. The way their hands are more reluctant to touch each other, out of stress more than nervousness; the corner of Ned’s eyes that smile less than they had earlier. Her attention to detail is interrupted when they’re called to board the plane. 

She’s grateful Peter arranged it so that their tickets were in the same row and right next to each other before they arrived at the airport. It saved the efforts they needed to exercise on the flight to Venice. 

He took the aisle seat so that the food cart wouldn’t hit her knee. Despite his offering, she kept her bookbag close to her, though she did put her sketchpad away. She pulled out the headphones and headphone splitter so they could choose the movies to watch together--nothing on Iron Man, or the blip the obvious limits. They muted their touching until Mister Dell, who was on duty to make sure everyone was on the plane, finished his head count and sat four rows behind them. 

As the plane took off, she rested her head on his, he nuzzles into her neck and they watched a cheesy kids’ comedy on the plane screen in front of her. 

Peter 

The sound of night lights turning on stirs him out of sleep. The smell of lavender and honey envelope his air. The feel of smooth curls not his caressed his cheek. Looking up, he finds MJ blinking her sleepy eyes and subtle smile. He smiled back at her before returning his head to her shoulder and reaching his outer hand against the arm she had between them. 

In response, he felt her lean more into him and hum, “Hmmm,” in that her hum totally melts his heart. 

MJ 

While she doesn’t sleep the whole flight, she doesn’t want to break the silent comfort of Peter leaning against her. Falling asleep wrapped in his arms softened her edges and angles in ways she didn’t want to think about too much. She was going to miss him when she fell asleep in her bed that night and she didn’t want to think about the kind of girl those kinds of mushy feelings made her. the way he nested his head into the nape of her neck, wrapped his outer hand around her arm, stroked her upper arm with his thumb was its own sort of lullaby. 

She didn’t know she liked being touched this much until he touched her. 

As the plane landed, the cabin brightened and she blinked her eyes open to a whimpering Peter, “C’mon, dork,” she whispers smoothing her hand over the one he kept holding her over the flight. 

When he opens his eyes, he smiles, rubs his eyes and blinks as he attempts to pull a strand of her hair out of his eyes. Finally accomplishing his feat, he smooths it in place, wide, close-mouth smile and eyes following his hands. She didn’t know she could get softer. 

Their eyes were locked onto each other until, from the corner of his eye, he sees that their row finally has room to stand and walk out of the aisle. He lets her out in front of him and they walk out of the terminal, in step, no hand holding until they pass the secured parts of the terminal to where people are walking. 

Then their hands brushing leads to hand holding and a smile his lips but not his eyes could contain. His smile is also contagious but she can’t make herself look up and admit to anyone. “Do you think anyone knows?” He asks.

“It’s not like anyone really pays attention to you,” she says.

“”Oh,” he whimpers.

“Except me,” she admits. 

“Oh,” he repeats in a happier tone. 

“Don’t be late,” she says before she walks to join her family. 

“See ya later,” he calls out as she leaves. 

She’s so grateful he doesn’t need a kiss goo’bye. She didn’t want the attention drawn to her. 

  
  
  


Peter

On parting from MJ, he joins Betty and Ned, only to find out that MJ was right about them. And they were happy for them, calling them cute in a tone he hoped MJ couldn’t hear. He walked with them to baggage claim and continued out the door, excited to see May waiting for him outside. 

As they hugged and she asked about his luggage, he looked to see whether or not the person by his aunt’s car was actually going to give her a ticket. He took the bagel she brought for him and followed her to the car right before the attendant could place the ticket on her car. 

In the ride, he talked about the series of events he experienced--the fake elemental in Venice, the fake elemental in Prague followed by the disaster of fake elemental and drones in London. “How did they not know this guy was a fake if he worked for Tony?”

“I dunno, May,” Peter answered as they got on the expressway, “I think maybe he changed his name. Putting the pieces together, I’m starting to think that they set us all up over the course of the trip--like they were gunning for me and these,” he concluded holding up EDITH from his shirt. 

“My boy,” May said tussling his hair, “I hope you take a break from swingin after that whole ordeal. I saw that you’re still nursing a limp there.”

“I won’t be,” Peter said massaging his still injured leg, “I even told Happy to tell Fury to give me a break--I didn’t see Fury or I’d have told him myself. They should have gotten a real Avenger to take this on, ya know. I  _ just  _ came back and I have a right to a normal life.” 

“Good,” May said as they got off on their exit, “because you need to clean your room, figure out what you’re doing the rest of the summer--

“Yeah,” Peter said, “I lost my phone and I’ll need to get a new one soon.

“Happy had it dropped off, so you just need to go to the store and get it connected to our plan.”

“Oh,” Peter swallowed taking a deep breath, “that was nice of him.”

“Least they could do,” May said, “after everything you had to go through because they wouldn’t ask for help.”

“I think they just want EDITH--Fury and Mysterio--because of what it has access to. I’m just glad I left it with Ned and MJ before I went to Berlin because who knows what would have happened to them or what Mysterio would have done.”

“I’m just glad you don’t have to worry about that guy anymore,” May said as they pulled in front of their house, “I want you to lay low on the Spider-Manning this summer. We just got back and I wanna enjoy you a little while.”

“Ned was telling me,” Peter said, “I’m sorry I don’t really think about what this does to you, it’s not really fair. He told me that sometimes he can’t sleep worrying about me, which is hard, y’know...just thinking about what Mysterio did with MJ and illusion tech has put a lot in perspective--

“MJ?”

“Yeah,” Peter explained realizing what he set up in doing so,” when I went to Berlin, I thought I was with Fury for a while, and then he fake killed Fury and ran me through a haunted high school, took me to a fake Eiffel Tower where it looked like he was holding MJ from a high place--all because I told him I wanted to be a regular kid and kiss the girl I like,” Peter concluded adding, “I never really thought about what I’m doing to people who know and care about me until then. I mean it reminded me how important it is to not tell anyone else and to be really guarded about who I work with and what I do, I never wanna anyone to get hurt ‘cause of me, not anymore ...”

He took a beat, trying to control both his tears and the tremor that had come out of his voice at the end of his rambling as they exited the car. As soon as they did and they were inside, May begins to say, “Oh, Petey, we’ll be okay and we understand why you do what you do,” adding, “it’s hard to learn that no matter how much you put on the line for the right reasons, people will come and use it against you.”

Peter took a deep breath and said, “yeah, I guess, I didn’t like that they put my class in danger to get me to do something and that it led to them being in more danger because of all that. Fury and the rest of them owe me a break.”

“Good,” May said, “wash up and we’ll go out to eat--

“Can we also set up my phone too?” Peter asked at the foot of the stairs, “It’s weird not having one--

“And you gotta make sure MJ got home okay?”

“Right,” Peter thought out loud and realizing the trap, said, “Aww, May!” as he went up the stairs. 

  
  
  


MJ 

A text message alert awoke her from her nap. It was a delicious nap and she was glad for the informal alarm because she’d have slept for a few days. 

She got out of bed and walked to her desk, where it was charging, to confirm her suspicions on who would text her at 8 pm at night. She opened up the text from Peter to read:

_ wrapped up dinner. just wanted to make sure you got home okay. _

She typed in response: I’m good, loser, ;), no swinging today?

_ “Won’t swing till our date”  _

Good answer. 

_ And I’m tired, gonna be taking a vacation. ” _

“Well-earned.”

_ “I agree.” _

“What are you gonna do with your free time?”

_ Look for a summer job; legos and games with Ned, hang out with you :)  _

Priorities are in good order. 

_ Can’t really do the other two without the first.  _

I’d think Mrs. Stark would have reached out to you by now. 

_ She did. I’d have to run it by May. I mean, I’m pretty sure EDITH binds me to them a bit and testing her capacity and how she engages will help them out too, so long as Spider-Man can work on his own time.  _

Good plan. I’ll be a barista for a small cafe this summer. Saving up for art supplies because, you know. 

_ I know :) I could join you.  _

You will.

_ Can I make a confession?  _

Sure

_ I’m scared to fall asleep.  _

Why? 

_ Because I talked about the effects of illusion tech and I can’t stop thinking about them… _

_ _ Can’t stop thinking about which illusions? 

_ The one where Mysterio was going to hurt you.  _

You didn’t tell me about that. 

_ I’m sorry. I was talking to May about how tired I was and it came up about putting a lot into perspective, because of how trusting Mysterio was used against me and people I care about.  _

I hear you. Imagine looking at fake clouds in the sky and a water monster not knowing whether you’ll make it or if your future boyfriend…

_ You typed boyfriend <3 :)  _

I did. 

_ Can I call?  _

Thin walls and it’s late. 

_ :(  _

Right there with you 

_ ;)  _

Family’s response to my return has me feeling like they’ll wanna spend time with me till you take me swinging. 

_ I’m here if you want an escape, albeit via texts.  _

Counting on it. :) :) XO 

You’re soft. 

_ Only for you, Parker, only for you. _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for riding the wave with me. I wanted to imagine an introspective MJ all the while keeping the hardness we know is a feeble shell around how soft she can be for Parker. It was hard to end the fic because I loved writing their comfort for each other and there's so much more to do with that, especially considering how I set up MJ in chapter 5 and how Peter's now thinking about others.  
Please let me know what you think and if I should write more. As of now, with finals on their way, I will be taking a break for a bit. As always, please feel free to comment and, OF COURSE, thanks for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading my first spideychelle fic! Kudos and feedback are always appreciated, <3 <3  
More chapters to come!


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